EX     L  I  B  R  I  S 


Jfflicfjael^tturrap 


SALVE  MATER 


BY  FREDERICK  J.  KINSMAN 


PRINCIPLES   OF   ANGLICANISM 
Crown  8vo. 

CATHOLIC   AND  PROTESTANT 
Crown  8vo. 
LONGMANS,  GREEN  AND  CO. 

OUTLINES    OF    THE  HISTORY    OF 
THE  CHURCH 

MOREHOUSE  PUBLISHING  CO. 


SALVE   MATER 


BY 

FREDERICK  JOSEPH  KINSMAN 


LONGMANS,    GREEN    AND    CO 

FOURTH  AVENUE  &  BOTH  STREET,   NEW  YORK 

LONDON,  BOMBAY,  CALCUTTA  AND  MADRAS 

1820 


COPTRICBT,  1920,  BT 

LONGMANS,   OREEN  AMD  CO. 


Firit  printed  February  1820 
Reprinted  May  1020 


TO  MY  MOTHER 
MARY   LOUISA   KINSMAN 


2026956 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE          .......  vii 

CHAPTER 

I  INTRODUCTION  —  ANTECEDENTS         >       .  1 

II  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  .....  14 

III  OXFORD        .                .                ..,  28 

IV  MINISTERIAL  WORK    .....  4,9 
V  DELAWARE  ........  65 

VI  ANGLICANISM       ......  74 

VII  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION  .  .  .  112 

VIII  ANGLICAN  ORDERS  .....  153 

IX  PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM  .  .  184 

X  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  .  .  .  204 

XI  THE  PAPACY  .  .  .  .232 

XII  NEW  DOGMAS  ......  259 

XIII  JESUIT  ETHICS     ......  279 

XIV  CONVERSION        .       ...  292 


PREFACE 

THE  purpose  of  this  book  has  been  outlined  in  its 
introductory  chapter  and  summarized  in  the  one  which 
concludes  it.  It  was  written  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
Maine  woods  under  circumstances  which  gave  access  to 
few  books,  and  may  contain  errors  in  detail  concerning 
matters  on  which  the  writer  had  to  trust  solely  to 
memory.  Yet,  as  a  record  of  experience,  the  narrative 
is  as  careful  and  accurate  as  it  could  be  made ;  and  when 
possible,  the  writer  has  quoted  letters  of  which  he  hap- 
pened to  have  copies. 

It  records  changes  in  ecclesiastical  opinions  involving 
change  in  ecclesiastical  allegiance,  and  aims  at  making 
two  things  clear.  First,  that  there  has  been  no  change 
in  principles,  merely  in  the  mode  of  their  application; 
and,  second,  that  although  the  writer  has  abandoned 
the  Catholic  interpretation  of  tfie  position  of  the  An- 
glican Communion,  his  personal  feeling  for  it  is  one  of 
profound  personal  gratitude.  He  cannot  expect  many 
to  sympathize  with  his  peculiar  point  of  view,  but  hopes 
that  he  has  made  clear  what  this  is. 

The  book  was  finished  on  the  fourteenth  of  November, 
the  last  act  of  a  life  that  is  ended.  Ten  days  later,  the 
writer  was  received  into  the  Communion  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  This  has  given  glimpses  into  a  new 
and  wonderful  world,  always  close  at  hand  and  sur- 
rounding us,  though  many  of  us  are  utterly  unconscious 
of  it,  involving  new  views  of  everything.  The  past 


x  PREFACE 

appears  through  a  veil,  making  it  difficult  to  recall  just 
how  it  seemed  when  it  was  present.  It  would  seem  now 
that  various  matters  touched  upon  in  this  book  should 
be  dealt  with  in  a  way  different  from  that  which  was 
wholly  natural  a  few  weeks  ago.  Yet  it  is  much  better 
that  the  book  be  left  as  it  is,  wholly  the  product  of  old 
associations  to  which  it  refers,  and  that  the  impression 
made  by  these  be  not  at  all  blurred  by  others  which 
are  wholly  new. 

F.J.K. 

PORTLAND,  MAINE, 
December  5,  1919. 


SALVE   MATER 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION ANTECEDENTS 

DURING  the  past  year,  I  have  had  to  make  three  de- 
cisions, vitally  important  to  myself,  and  significant  to 
friends  as  indicating  abandonment  of  convictions  which 
we  have  long  shared  as  the  basis  of  the  chief  hopes  and 
energies  of  our  lives.  In  the  first  place,  it  became  neces- 
sary for  me  to  resign  jurisdiction  over  the  Diocese  of 
Delaware  of  which  I  had  been  Bishop  for  over  ten  years ; 
in  the  second,  to  renounce  the  Orders  of  the  Episcopal 
Church;  and  in  the  third,  its  Communion.  These  de- 
cisions were  followed  by  recognition  of  the  duty  to  seek 
admission  into  the  Communion  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  The  decision  about  jurisdiction  was  reached 
in  December,  1918,  the  one  about  Orders  in  the  follow- 
ing June,  and  both  carried  into  effect  in  a  letter  to  the 
Presiding  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  sent  on  July 
1st.  The  other  decisions  were  not  reached  until 
August.  For  several  reasons,  the  intention  to  seek  ad- 
mission into  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  not  yet 
(November)  been  carried  out;  so  that  this  book  has 
been  written  in,  and  out  of,  old  surroundings.  I  know 
nothing  yet  of  those  which  must  determine  future 
courses,  if  any  space  of  life  is  still  in  store  for  me. 


2  INTRODUCTION 

I  owe  some  account  of  myself  to  two  sets  of  people; 
first,  to  my  friends  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  especially 
my  people  in  Delaware;  and  second,  to  pupils  of  past 
years  who  will  wish  to  know  the  reasons  which  have 
forced  abandonment  of  what  they  know  to  have  been 
firmly  held  convictions.  This  book,  therefore,  has  been 
written  primarily  for  personal  friends.  This  fact  ex- 
plains the  giving  of  personal  details,  and  the  assump- 
tion that  the  motive  underlying  its  comments  will  be 
understood  without  need  of  special  explanation. 

I  have  undertaken  to  answer  two  questions :  Why  have 
I  abandoned  the  Episcopal  Church  for  the  Roman 
Catholic?  and  Why  did  it  take  so  long  to  see  the  duty? 
The  attempt  to  perform  this  task  during  three  quiet 
months  in  Birchmere  has  shown  the  necessity  of  touch- 
ing on  many  matters  of  which  at  the  outset  I  had  no 
thought.  It  has  been  necessary  to  review  the  course 
of  my  whole  life,  and  to  outline  the  whole  of  the  experi- 
ence which  has  been  responsible  for  the  formation  of 
views  of  what  constitutes  the  Church. 

To  answer  the  first  question,  it  has  seemed  necessary 
to  give  a  detailed  account  of  my  religious  education, 
indicating  certain  fixed  points  which  have  been  decisive 
in  the  formation  of  all  my  ecclesiastical  conceptions ;  to 
summarize  also  an  experience  in  ministerial  work  which 
induced  the  feeling  that  the  Episcopal  Church  fails  to 
realize  ideals  which  her  teaching  has  made  me  regard 
as  all-important;  and  to  outline  various  revisions  of 
judgment  in  regard  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
removing  prejudices  which  until  very  recently  would 
have  kept  me  out  of  her  Communion,  and  bringing  con- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

viction  that  in  this  alone  is  full  realization  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  I  have  wished  to  put  myself  on  record  in 
regard  to  changes  of  view  on  important  matters,  for 
the  sake  of  correcting  what  I  now  regard  as  erroneous 
in  my  former  teaching.  Correction  takes  the  form 
chiefly  of  addition.  There  is  very  little  in  what  I  have 
said  in  the  formal  teaching  of  past  years,  which  I  should 
now  wish  wholly  to  unsay;  there  is  not  a  great  deal 
that  I  should  wish  to  say  very  differently:  but  I  should 
add  much,  and  the  additions  would  wholly  change  my 
estimate  of  the  English  Reformation.  Dr.  Gairdner 
described  the  first  stage  of  this  as  merely  "  the  old 
religion  with  the  Pope  left  out."  I  should  now  wish  to 
teach  "  the  old  religion  with  the  Pope  put  back." 

To  answer  the  second  question,  it  has  seemed  neces- 
sary to  refer  to  antecedents  and  associations,  which 
involved  living  for  almost  half  a  century  with  little 
actual  knowledge  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
which  made  any  change  of  ecclesiastical  allegiance  seem 
unnatural  or  impossible.  I  have  referred  in  detail  to 
my  unusually  pleasant  and  congenial  experiences  during 
four  years  of  preparation  for  Orders  in  England,  and 
during  twenty-four  years  of  ministry  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  which  seemed  to  impose  special  obligations  of 
holding  to  my  assigned  post,  and  extenuate  possibly, 
though  they  could  not  excuse,  the  slowness  to  heed  the 
call  to  leave  them  all  behind.  It  has  been  necessary 
also  to  detail  erroneous  conceptions  of  Roman  Catholi- 
cism, and  prejudices  against  it,  which  have  only  been 
overcome  by  a  heavy  bombardment  of  working  facts. 

To  the  Episcopal  Church  I  owe  everything  of  chief 


4  INTRODUCTION 

value  in  my  life;  and  especially  the  fixed  ideas  which, 
as  they  have  worked  themselves  out  in  practice,  have 
compelled  my  abandonment  of  her  Ministry  and  Com- 
munion. In  view  of  the  abandonment,  it  may  seem  in- 
sincere to  profess  continuance  of  attachment;  never- 
theless it  is  simply  true  that,  even  with  changed 
proportionate  values,  I  still  have  great  veneration  for 
the  Church  and  her  achievements,  and  an  enhanced  feel- 
ing of  personal  gratitude  for  the  associations  and  op- 
portunities which  were  given  me.  From  my  point  of 
view,  I  am  simply  carrying  out  more  fully  and  con- 
sistently principles  and  duties,  which,  through  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  I  have  come  to  consider  of  highest  im- 
portance, by  giving  allegiance  where  they  seem  to  be 
given  fullest  realization.  "  Nought  in  life  became  him 
like  the  leaving  of  it."  In  spite  of  having  lost  belief 
in  Anglican  Catholicity,  my  estimate  of  the  Anglican 
Churches  has  not  changed  from  "  good "  to  "  bad," 
but  simply  to  "  good  "  from  "  best."  I  wish  my  friends 
to  know  this.  To  say  so  may  seem  insincere,  inconsist- 
ent, incongruous.  Nevertheless  it  is  true.  This  implies 
no  uncertainty  as  to  the  duty  either  of  giving  up  the 
Episcopal  Church,  or  of  submitting  to  the  Roman 
Catholic.  I  have  wavered  a  long  time;  but  I  am  not 
wavering  now.  For  long  I  have  been  uncertain  what 
Our  Lord's  Will  for  me  was:  now  I  know. 

In  thus  accounting  for  myself,  I  have  not  wished  to 
give  the  impression  that  I  regard  my  course  as  edifying, 
or  that  recording  opinions  and  acts  implies  approval. 
I  think  many  of  my  past  opinions  utterly  foolish,  and 
many  of  my  acts  indefensible,  especially  the  not  seeing 


INTRODUCTION  5 

the  duty  of  change  several  years  ago.  Those  who  dis- 
agree with  my  conclusions  will  be  noticing  personal  limi- 
tations which  may  be  taken  fairly  to  discount  my  judg- 
ments. Things  of  this  sort  I  have  wished  plainly  to 
appear,  although  I  have  not  commented  on  them.  I 
remember  a  bit  of  advice  once  given  me  by  the  Rev- 
erend Dr.  William  R.  Huntington:  "Don't  be  so  anx- 
ious to  point  out  the  weak  points  in  your  own  position : 
let  the  other  people  find  those."  I  have  no  wish  to 
undertake  a  defence  of  myself  personally,  least  of  all 
for  my  course  during  the  past  three  years,  a  time  of 
perplexity,  fluctuations  of  feeling  and  judgment,  incon- 
sistency and  paralysis  of  the  will.  These  are  normal 
effects  of  doubt.  As  I  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  have 
simply  been  an  example  of  a  *  double-minded  man, 
unstable  in  all  his  ways.' "  Yet  I  have  confidence  in 
the  validity  of  my  ecclesiastical  judgments,  not  only  for 
myself  but  for  others  with  the  same  point  of  view.  None 
of  my  opinions  are  original,  in  substance  or  form  of 
statement.  Yet  as  I  have  come  to  hold  them,  they  have 
received  corroboration  and  illustration  from  a  varied 
experience. 

The  narrative  is  not  an  autobiography.  I  have  tried 
to  account  for  the  development  of  opinions  on  one  set 
of  subjects,  not  to  exhibit  my  personal  life  and  work, 
matters  of  no  interest  to  any  except  those  who  know 
all  about  them  already.  One's  personality,  however,  is  a 
sort  of  Jack-in-the-Box,  forever  bobbing  up,  no  matter 
how  often  rapped  on  the  head  and  clamped  down:  and 
many  incidents  in  one's  experience  contribute  to  the 
formation  of  any  set  of  opinions.  I  have  tried  to  tell 


6  INTRODUCTION 

everything  that  has  bearing,  even  remote,  on  the  forma- 
tion of  my  opinions  as  to  what  constitutes  the  Church: 
but  I  have  tried  to  exclude  everything  else.  The  nar- 
rative relates  not  to  "  a  spiritual  pilgrimage,"  but  to 
an  ecclesiastical  quest,  to  an  effort  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, "  What  is  the  Catholic  Church?  "  The  recording 
of  the  various  phases  and  stages  of  this  one  aspect  of 
one's  mental  growth  may  give  the  impression  that  life 
has  been  one  long  Gregorian  Tone — frequently  off- 
key.  My  friends  know  that  there  have  been  frequent 
interludes  of  Gilbert  and  Sullivan ! 

The  chief  purposes  of  the  book  are  two :  to  show  that 
the  giving  up  of  the  Episcopal  Church  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  was,  in  its  most  obvious  aspect,  an  act  of 
simple  honesty ;  and  to  publish  such  views  on  historical 
subjects  as  differ  from  those  given  in  my  former  books. 
In  dealing  with  these,  I  have  not  undertaken  to  give  any 
complete  presentation  of  the  several  subjects,  merely 
to  elaborate  the  special  points  which  have  induced  me 
to  abandon  former  contentions.  These  chapters  are 
narrative,  rather  than  argument ;  an  account  of  modifi- 
cation or  change  in  my  own  estimates,  not  an  attempt 
to  make  such  a  statement  as  might  seem  conclusive  to 
other  people.  They  deal,  however,  with  points  of  vital 
importance  to  all  who  have  shared  my  old  point  of  view. 
The  book  is  partly  confession,  partly  retraction,  chiefly 
the  avowal  of  hopeful  conviction. 

ANTECEDENTS  AND  EARLY  EDUCATION 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  played  no  part  in  the 
world  in  which  I  was  born  and  bred.  My  family  belong 


ANTECEDENTS  7 

to  the  Connecticut  Western  Reserve  itt  Ohio  with  a 
background  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts:  they 
were  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church  into  which  two 
generations  had  come  out  of  New  England  Congrega- 
tionalism. Our  earliest  American  ancestor  came  to  this 
country  in  the  Mayflower  in  1620 ;  none  from  whom 
we  derive  descent  came  over  later  than  1680.  Along 
every  line  we  are  descended  from  New  England  Puritans. 

The  Kinsmans  derive  from  Robert  Kinsman,  who  came 
to  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  in  1635;  whose  grandson, 
Robert  3rd,  removed  to  Norwich,  Connecticut,  in  1721. 
Among  the  families  from  whom  we  are  descended 
through  Kinsman  marriages,  are  the  Conants,  Burleys, 
Warrens,  Watermans,  Thomases  of  Marshfield,  Per- 
kinses of  Norwich,  and  Douglases  of  Plainfield.  My 
great-grandfather,  John  Kinsman  of  Norwich,  was  one 
of  the  largest  landholders  in  the  Connecticut  Western 
Reserve.  His  land  list  for  1813  showed  holdings  in 
every  County,  including  Cunningham's  (Kelley's)  Is- 
land, amounting  in  all  to  forty-six  thousand  acres,  of 
which  the  largest  tract  was  in  Trumbull  County  in  the 
townships  of  Gustavus  and  Kinsman.  My  grandfather, 
his  youngest  son,  was  born  in  Kinsman  in  1807,  was 
after  his  father's  death  associated  with  his  uncle,  Gen- 
eral Simon  Perkins,  in  the  Land  Office  in  Warren,  where 
he  built  the  family  homestead  in  1833,  and  spent  his 
life. 

In  1840,  he  married  Cornelia  Granger  Pease, 
youngest  daughter  of  Judge  Calvin  Pease  of  Suffield, 
Connecticut,  who  served  several  terms  on  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Ohio,  and  was  for  a  time  Chief  Justice.  The 


8  ANTECEDENTS 

Peases  are  descended  from  Robert  Pease  of  Salem ;  and 
through  them  we  are  connected  with  the  Goodells  of 
Salem,  Adamses  of  Ipswich,  Spencers  of  Hartford, 
Kings  of  Enfield,  Risleys  of  Glastonbury,  and  Grants 
of  Windsor.  My  father,  Frederick  Kinsman  Jr.,  was 
born  in  1841,  served  in  the  Civil  War  in  the  84th  Ohio 
and  as  First  Lieutenant  of  the  171st  Ohio,  and  in  1867 
married  Mary  Louisa  Marvin. 

My  mother's  father,  Joseph  Marvin,  was  born  in 
Lyme,  Connecticut,  in  1807,  a  descendant  of  Reinold 
Marvin  who  settled  in  Lyme  in  1640,  and  of  Beckwiths, 
Demings,  Lords  and  Millers,  all  of  them  families  of  the 
south  Connecticut  Valley.  In  1837,  he  married  Lucy 
Temple  Dana,  born  in  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  a 
descendant  of  Richard  Dana  of  Cambridge,  and  con- 
nected with  the  Buckminsters  and  Stanifords  of  Ip- 
swich, Lees  of  Marblehead,  Thorndikes  of  Beverley, 
and  Tracys  of  Newburyport.  Her  grandfather,  Dr. 
Joseph  Dana,  was  for  sixty-six  years  pastor  of  the 
South  Church  in  Ipswich;  an  uncle,  Dr.  Daniel  Dana, 
was  pastor  of  the  South  Church,  in  Newburyport,  and 
President  of  Dartmouth  College;  another  uncle,  Dr. 
Samuel  Dana,  was  pastor  of  the  South  Church  in 
Marblehead ;  and  her  father,  Dr.  Joseph  Dana,  re- 
moved from  Newburyport  to  Ohio,  to  become  Professor 
of  Languages  in  the  College  at  Athens,  at  one  time  des- 
tined to  become  the  University  of  Ohio.  All  of  my 
great-grandparents  removed  from  New  England  to  Ohio 
prior  to  1830;  my  grandparents,  although  born  else- 
where, all  lived  in  Warren,  where  my  parents  and  I 
were  born. 


ANTECEDENTS  9 

Those  who  know  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  the 
Connecticut  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio,  will  recognize 
what  sort  of  religious  and  ecclesiastical  background  the 
names  enumerated  signify.  All  our  forbears  were  New 
England  Congregationalists,  some  in  later  generations 
being  Presbyterians,  one  family  Episcopalians.  My 
great-grandmother  Kinsman  was  chiefly  instrumental  in 
building  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Kinsman  and  gave 
the  glebe.  My  grandfather  Marvin,  a  graduate  of 
Athens  College,  whose  family  were  Presbyterians,  be- 
came a  Methodist  minister,  although  never  holding  a 
regular  charge. 

My  Kinsman  grandparents  became  Episcopalians,  as 
did  my  mother,  who  from  her  childhood  preferred  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  was  confirmed  while  at  boarding- 
school  in  Batavia,  New  York.  My  grandfather  Kins- 
man was  chief  contributor  to  the  building  fund  for 
Christ  Church,  Warren,  in  which  my  grandmother  was 
a  devout  communicant.  In  view  of  their  connection 
with  the  church,  it  was  not  inappropriate  that  the 
window  over  the  altar  was  placed  there  as  their  me- 
morial by  their  sons.  My  father  and  mother  were 
married  in  Christ  Church;  and  I  was  baptized  there  by 
the  Reverend  Cornelius  Stevenson  Abbott  Sr.  when  I 
was  four  weeks  old. 

I  was  therefore  brought  up  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  Warren.*  I  had  my  first  religious  instruction  from 

•  The  beginnings  of  my  ecclesiastical  career  were  ominous. 
A  letter  of  my  grandmother's,  written  just  after  I  was  four 
years  old,  describes  me  as  a  disturber  of  the  congregation. 
"Little  Cornelia  was  on  her  best  behavior  and  seemed  very 


10  ANTECEDENTS 

my  mother,  who  was  also  my  first  Sunday  School 
teacher,  as  she  had  charge  of  the  Infant  Class  for  a 
number  of  years.  Later  I  was  placed  in  a  class  taught 
by  Miss  Mary  Iddings,  who  was  the  first  to  make  me 
memorize  the  Prayer  Book  collects.  For  a  year  I  also 
attended  a  class  in  the  Presbyterian  Sunday  School, 
taught  by  Miss  Ella  Estabrook,  my  teacher  in  grammar 
school,  who  trained  me  in  habits  of  reading  the  Bible.  My 
connections  and  associations  gave  me  a  feeling  of  filial 
veneration  not  only  for  the  Episcopal  Church,  but  also 
for  the  Presbyterian,  Congregational  and  Methodist 
Churches,  to  which  so  many  of  my  own  people  belonged.* 
No  one  whom  we  knew  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  In  our 
world  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  did  not  exist,  save  as 
a  phenomenon  in  European  travel,  a  bogy  in  history, 
and  an  idiosyncrasy  of  Irish  servants. 

So  nearly  as  I  can  remember,  the  chief  impressions 
left  upon  me  by  the  religious  training  of  home  and 
Sunday  School  were,  that  God  is  our  Father,  that  Our 

much  gratified  with  her  first  visit  to  her  Grandmamma.  She 
is  a  nice  baby;  and  I  am  very  proud  of  my  little  namesake. 
Freddy  improves  all  the  time,  and  is  one  of  the  dearest  little 
•  boys  I  ever  saw.  You  never  saw  anything  like  his  devotion 
to  his  little  sister.  I  believe  he  kisses  her  a  thousand  times  a 
day.  Last  Sunday  he  went  to  church  with  the  nurse  and  sat 
in  our  seat.  Jenny  Adams  was  there  and  sat  with  Mrs. 
Glidden.  It  was  too  funny  to  see  their  flirtation.  They  got 
their  beads  together  and  whispered;  and  then  Fred  would  put 
his  arm  around  her  neck  so  lovingly,  that  it  set  nearly  every- 
one to  laughing  in  the  church.  I  should  judge  that  some  of 
the  congregation  were  more  interested  in  watching  them  than 
in  the  sermon." 

*  In  later  years  I  have  said  many  things  indicating  that 


ANTECEDENTS  11 

Lord  gave  an  example  of  a  beautiful  life,  and  that  it 
was  one's  duty  to  say  prayers,  to  read  the  Bible  and  to 
attend  church  regularly,  all  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
one's  conscience  active.  My  mother  trained  me  in 
habits  of  obedience  and  industry;  and  stimulated  the 
workings  of  my  conscience,  which,  I  think,  was  a  sensi- 
tive one.  Prayers  consisted  simply  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  such  petitions  for  blessings  on  relatives  and  friends 
as  I  devised  for  myself.  They  would  have  been  ad- 
dresses to  God  the  Father;  for  although  I  knew  Our 
Lord  was  Son  of  God,  I  can  not  recall  that  I  had  any 
sense  of  His  constant  presence.  I  do  not  remember  that 
church  services  made  any  special  impression,  although  I 
attended  them  regularly.  What  I  liked  least  was  the 
sermons,  which  always  seemed  unintelligible. 

Unitarianism  seems  to  be  Christianity  almost  evaporated.  Yet 
I  have  high  respect  for  Unitarians  as  clear-headed  and  con- 
sistent with  an  admirable  record  for  culture  and  philanthropy. 
This  I  have  expressed  in  two  books.  Respect  for  them  dates 
from  my  boyhood  when  I  was  devoted  to  the  stories  of  Miss 
Louisa  M.  Alcott,  whom  I  knew  to  be  a  Unitarian.  Her  boys 
and  girls  were  among  the  best  friends  of  my  young  days;  and 
her  stories  have  always  seemed  to  me  to  reflect  the  most  healthy 
and  admirable  aspects  of  American  b'fe.  My  regard  for  them 
was  brought  vividly  home  in  1917  when  I  went  to  see  a  film- 
version  of  Little  Women  in  New  York.  It  seemed  to  bring 
up  all  the  best  hopes  of  my  boyhood;  and  in  certain  scenes  I 
found  myself  disgracefully  disposed  to  weep.  Looking  fur- 
tively about  to  see  if  I  had  been  caught  at  it,  I  discovered 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  audience  was  composed  of  gray- 
haired  ladies  and  bald-headed  men,  many  sniffing  and  making 
suspicious  displays  of  handkerchiefs.  It  was  a  gathering  of 
boys  and  girls  of  the  late  '70's  and  early  '80's;  and  I  was  not 
alone  in  reviving  the  wistfulness  of  a  vanished  youth. 


12  ANTECEDENTS 

From  the  time  I  was  eight,  I  was  an  insatiable  reader, 
and  had  many  books  from  the  Sunday  School  Library ; 
but  I  recall  none  that  made  any  sort  of  religious  im- 
pression. I  think  I  did  not  read  much  in  the  Bible  until 
I  was  eleven  or  twelve ;  but  diaries  kept  at  twelve  show 
that  I  read  three  chapters  a  day,  and  five  on  Sundays. 
My  first  Bible  shows  marking  of  passages  I  thought 
specially  good;  and  the  solid  lines  in  most  places  seem 
to  indicate  that  it  seemed  disrespectful  to  leave  any 
passage  without  token  of  approval!  It  would  seem  to 
me  that  those  responsible  for  my  religious  training  did 
all  they  could  for  a  small  boy. 

We  lived  in  Warren  until  I  was  thirteen  years  old. 
I  was  always  interested  in  out-of-door  activities,  espe- 
cially riding  and  driving,  but  always  found  time  for 
reading.  To  my  two  grandfathers  I  owe  an  especial 
interest  in  history.  They  stimulated  my  curiosity  about 
family  traditions,  the  annals  of  the  Western  Reserve, 
and  the  history  of  the  United  States.  I  was  also  much 
interested  in  Dickens'  Child's  History  of  England;  but 
American  history  was  always  to  the  fore.  I  was  secre- 
tary of  a  Boys'  Literary  Club,  at  which  biographical 
sketches  of  famous  Americans  were  read.  My  own 
papers  show  much  interest  and  considerable  reading  for 
a  boy  of  twelve.  I  had  an  uneventful,  healthy  sort  of 
boyhood,  with  good,  simple  educational  foundations; 
but,  although  I  think  I  had  a  vivid  imagination,  I  can- 
not remember  that  it  was  particularly  directed  to  re- 
ligious matters.  Religion  seemed  to  be  chiefly  a  matter 
of  studying  the  Bible;  and  I  found  American  history 
much  more  interesting. 


ANTECEDENTS  13 

Christ  Church,  Warren,  was  associated  with  the  end, 
as  well  as  with  the  beginning,  of  my  life  in  the  Episcopal 
Church.  It  was  there  on  the  Second  Sunday  in  Lent, 
1919,  that  I  last  celebrated  and  received  Holy  Com- 
munion. 


CHAPTER  II 


AT  fourteen,  I  was  sent  to  St.  Paul's  School,  Con- 
cord, New  Hampshire,  entering  in  September,  1883,  and 
leaving  in  June,  1887.  All  definiteness  in  religious  im- 
pressions seems  to  have  been  derived  from  St.  Paul's. 
The  School  at  that  time  had  a  recognized  place  as  first 
among  church-schools  for  boys,  and  after  thirty  years 
of  steady  development  was  nearing  the  end  of  the  first 
period  in  its  history.  It  was  inevitable  that  it  should 
outgrow  the  simpler  equipment  and  methods  of  its  first 
days,  from  being  a  family  become  a  college,  and  that 
change  should  indicate  progress:  yet  all  the  older  St. 
Paul's  boys  will  ever  feel  that  the  first  chapters  of  the 
School's  history  constitute  its  golden  age.  If  it  were 
necessary  to  specify  a  moment  when  this  came  to  an  end, 
it  is  probable  that  it  might  be  placed  in  1887,  the  year 
when  the  Old  Chapel  was  superseded  by  the  New.  My 
VI  Form  year  was  the  last  in  which  the  Old  Chapel  was 
the  centre  of  the  school  life.  It  is  easy  to  illustrate 
that  this  was  a  time  of  transition. 

In  its  beginnings,  St.  Paul's  School  simply  meant  Dr. 
Henry  Augustus  Coit,  who  might  well  have  said, 
L'£cole?  C'est  moi.  He  had  derived  his  ideals  from 
Dr.  William  Augustus  Muhlenberg  of  St.  Paul's  Col- 
lege, Flushing,  which  he  had  attended ;  and  of  a  number 
14 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  15 

who  in  various  places  followed  the  Muhlenberg  tradi- 
tion, Dr.  Coit  gave  it  its  fullest  and  most  permanent 
embodiment.  Dr.  Muhlenberg's  school  was  a  family  of 
boys,  of  which  he  was  "  school- father,"  the  spiritual 
guide,  friend,  and  father-confessor  of  his  "  school- 
sons,"  not  merely  schoolmaster;  and  everything  was 
dominated  by  his  own  personality.  He  had  a  genius  for 
appraising  the  moral  and  mental  value  of  external  sur- 
roundings, knew  the  use  of  color  and  music  in  young 
lives,  was  an  artist  in  his  use  of  religious  services,  and 
although  there  was  no  talk  about  "  psychology  "  in  his 
day,  he  knew  all  about  boys'  souls  and  how  to  get  at 
them.  What  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was  at  St.  Paul's  on 
Long  Island,  Dr.  Coit  was  at  St.  Paul's  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. There  were  differences;  but  the  type  was  the 
same.  Dr.  Muhlenberg  had  greater  aesthetic  develop- 
ment, and  was  a  musician ;  Dr.  Coit  was  the  more  schol- 
arly and  a  brilliant  teacher.  But  in  each  school  the 
headmaster's  personality  dominated  and  left  its  impress 
chiefly  by  giving  a  standard  of  spiritual  values. 

This  is  possible  in  a  family  of  fifty,  or  even  a  hundred, 
boys,  as  it  is  not  in  a  larger  community.  No  one  but 
Dr.  Coit,  under  whose  hand  the  whole  work  at  St.  Paul's 
had  grown  from  small  beginnings,  could  have  exercised 
omnipresent  parental  control  as  long  as  he  did.  In  my 
day  there  were  three  hundred  and  fifty  boys  in  the 
School ;  and  although  the  Rector  did  no  teaching  except 
of  Sacred  Studies  in  the  upper  Forms,*  my  impression 
is  that  he  was  to  the  boys  of  my  day,  individually  and 

*  As  a  IV  Former,  during  the  illness  of  a  master,  I  had  him 
for  two  months  in  Virgil.  The  second  and  third  books  of  the 


16  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

collectively,  all  that  he  had  been  during  the  heroic 
period  of  the  '60's  and  '70's ;  at  any  rate  I  have  always 
seemed  wholly  to  understand  the  particular  brand  of 
loyalty  belonging  to  St.  Paul's  boys  of  the  first  genera- 
tion. During  the  last  seven  or  eight  years  of  his  life, 
he  lost  something  of  his  grip  of  many  things ;  the  School 
was  larger ;  he  was  physically  less  vigorous ;  Mrs.  Coit 
had  died.  The  difference  was  marked  by  the  difference  in 
the  impression  he  made  in  the  two  Chapels.  There  was 
no  change  in  himself,  but  distinct  change  in  the  way  in 
which  he  appeared  in  the  larger  environment. 

In  the  Old  Chapel  he  filed  the  place.  He  had  a 
spiritually  dramatic  sense,  great  power  of  conveying 
emotional  impressions,  and  by  tensity  of  his  personal 
devotion,  permeated  and  controlled  the  congregation. 
His  power  was  like  that  of  the  conductor  of  an  orches- 
tra, who  indulges  in  little  or  no  movement  and  whose 
eyes  seldom  leave  his  score,  yet  who  dominates  his 
musicians  by  tensity  of  feeling  for  the  music  itself.  So 
Dr.  Coit,  whether  he  himself  were  conducting  the  service 
or  not,  could  compel  attention  to  its  meaning  and  lead 
in  devotion.  He  read  exquisitely  with  dramatic  inter- 
pretation that  in  no  way  suggested  striving  for  effect.* 
He  also  led  the  singing,  not  audibly  as  Dr.  Muhlenberg 
would  have  done,  but  visibly.  His  lips  moved  reverently 

Aeneid  which  we  read  with  him  stand  out  vividly  as  no  other 
classics  I  read  in  school. 

•  Fine  reading  is  almost  a  lost  art.  The  only  one  who  in 
recent  years  has  seemed  to  me  to  have  something  of  the  rev- 
erent artistry  I  recall  in  Dr.  Coit,  and  a  few  others  whom  I 
remember  in  my  youth,  is  Dr.  Houghton  of  the  Transfigura- 
tion, New  York. 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  17 

and  intelligently,  repeating  the  words  of  the  hymn,  the 
sentiment  of  which  he  deeply  felt ;  as  a  "  well-tuned  cym- 
bal," he  stimulated  the  "  loud  cymbals."  Yet  I  do  not 
think  he  could  sing  or  had  keen  appreciation  of  music 
apart  from  associations  and  its  use  in  expressing  re- 
ligious emotion.  Several  old  St.  Paul's  boys  were  once 
discussing  this.  We  knew  we  had  always  seen  him  sing; 
yet  we  knew  of  no  one  who  had  ever  heard  him.  We  were 
positive,  however,  that  he  led  the  congregation  in  hymns 
quite  as  much  as  Mr.  Knox,  though  in  a  different  way, 
if  not  the  choir  in  anthems !  There  was  no  doubt  about 
his  leading  in  the  prayers  and  responses,  and  from  the 
pulpit  he  could  hold  attention  and  guide  thought  and 
feeling,  though  he  read  his  sermons,  always  expressed  in 
beautiful  and  forcible  English.  As  he  moved  majes- 
tically from  his  stall  to  the  altar,  the  folds  of  his  long 
surplice  swaying  rhythmically,  he  focussed  attention  in 
such  a  way  as  to  create  the  feeling  that  he  was  leading 
all  to  participation  in  an  act  of  special  holiness. 
Whether  in  his  stall,  in  the  pulpit,  or  at  the  altar,  he 
was  a  centre  of  energy  for  the  men  and  boys  of  his  large 
"  household  " ;  his  power  was  concentrated  in  the  Chapel, 
which,  as  he  often  reminded  us,  was  the  centre  of  the 
School,  and  its  services  of  the  School's  life. 

It  was  never  the  same  in  the  New  Chapel.  At  the 
time  of  the  consecration  he  had  been  crippled  by  a  fall, 
and  had  to  delegate  his  natural  duties  to  others.  Later, 
although  the  New  Chapel  perpetuated  and  improved  on 
traditions  and  customs  of  the  Old,  the  Doctor,  in  a  stall 
at  one  end  and  making  his  way  to  the  pulpit  by  a  sort 
of  surreptitious  entry  from  the  vestry,  never  filled  and 


18  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

dominated  the  larger  place  as  he  had  the  smaller.  The 
stately  services  in  a  college  chapel  have  an  impressive- 
ness  all  their  own ;  but  they  must  inevitably  lack  some- 
thing of  the  effect  of  the  more  intimate  devotions  of  a 
big  family  oratory.  In  later  years  I  spent  five  years  as 
Master  at  St.  Paul's  and  have  many  cherished  associa- 
tions with  the  Chapel  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  (New)  ; 
but  I  have  always  been  thankful  that  my  own  school- 
days were  spent  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel  (Old)  with  all  that 
that  signifies  of  coming  more  closely  under  the  spell  of 
Dr.  Henry  Coit.* 

When  my  mother  took  me  to  St.  Paul's,  she  said  to 
Dr.  Coit,  "  We  have  done  the  best  we  could  for  Fred, 
and  now  we  leave  him  entirely  to  you."  He  replied,  "  I 
wish  all  parents  sent  their  sons  in  the  same  way."  I 
always  felt  that  the  Doctor  understood  me  perfectly 
and  took  a  special  interest  in  me — every  St.  Paul's  boy 
thought  precisely  the  same! — and  could  always  go  to 
him  quite  naturally  and  trustfully.  Yet  I  do  not  re- 
member that  I  often  saw  him  alone  except  during  my 
VI  Form  year,  when,  as  head-editor  of  the  Horae 
Scholasticae,  I  had  to  submit  copy  for  his  inspection, 

*  I  have  more  special  associations  with  the  Old  Chapel  at 
St.  Paul's  School  than  with  any  other  church-building.  There 
I  was  confirmed  by  Bishop  Niles  of  New  Hampshire  on 
Ascension  Day,  1885,  kneeling  at  the  Epistle  end  of  the  altar; 
there  I  made  my  first  Communion  shortly  after  on  the  last 
Sunday  of  term,  kneeling  second  from  the  end  of  the  kneel- 
ing-pace  on  the  Gospel  side;  there  I  was  ordained  priest  by 
Bishop  Niles  on  July  1,  1896,  with  Mr.  Parker  (afterward 
Bishop  of  New  Hampshire)  preaching  the  sermon;  and  there 
on  the  following  Sunday  I  for  the  first  time  celebrated  Holy 
Communion. 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  19 

and  when  I  read  with  him  three  books  of  New  Testament 
Greek.*  Yet  of  all  the  personal  influences  in  my  life 
the  one  that  has  counted  for  most  has  been  that  of 
Dr.  Henry  Coit. 

I  have  no  distinct  recollection  of  his  sermons  or  of 
details  in  his  instructions  for  Confirmation,  although  I 
have  never  forgotten  his  catechisms  which  we  memo- 
rized. His  influence  tended  to  create  not  so  much  defi- 
nite intellectual  convictions  as  deep  moral  impressions. 
These,  however,  were  always  directly  associated  with  the 
great  simple  Christian  truths;  and  to  the  teaching  at 
St.  Paul's  I  owe  fixed  points  of  view  on  religious  matters. 
From  Dr.  Coit  I  had  foundations  on  which  only  one 
sort  of  superstructure  was  possible,  outlines  which  could 
only  be  filled  in  in  particular  sorts  of  ways.  On  the 
great  things  he  was  clear  and  insistent,  on  details 
vague;  many  things  which  formed  part  of  his  teaching 
were  not  things  he  definitely  stated  so  much  as  things 
he  permitted,  or  even  compelled  one,  to  infer.  The  chief 
impressions  which  he  left  on  my  mind  and  conscience,  or 
deepened  if  they  existed  already,  were  those  which 
would,  I  think,  be  recognized  as  central  in  his  teaching 
by  any  of  the  old  St.  Paul's  boys.  They  may  be  sum- 
marized under  three  heads. 

1.  The  Constant  Presence  of  Our  Lord. — That  Our 
Lord  is  a  Divine  Person  was  impressed  in  an  unmistak- 
able way.  He  did  not  speak  of  Him  as  One  remote, 
an  historical  character  whose  humanity  was  so  beautiful 
that  it  might  be  called  "  divine,"  or  as  an  incongruous 

*  To  supposed  intimacy  with  him,  however,  I  owed  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  member  of  the  Cadmcan  Society.  The 


20  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

adjunct  to  the  Almighty  Father,  as  is  not  uncommon 
even  among  instructed  churchmen.  He  was  the  one 
great  constant  Reality,  the  one  Person  Who  could  be 
really  counted  on  all  the  time;  not  simply  One  Whom 
he  talked  about  in  Sacred  Studies  and  sermons,  but, 
we  firmly  believed,  One  Whom  he  talked  to  during  the 
many  hours  we  knew  he  spent  in  the  Chapel,  carrying 
us  into  the  Divine  presence  by  his  constant  intercessions 
for  us.  His  insistence  on  prayer  treated  it,  not  as  a 
persistent  begging  of  favors,  but  as  soul-satisfying 
intercourse  with  the  one  all-loving  Person.  A  man,  not 
an  alumnus  of  the  School,  once  gave  his  impression  of  a 
typical  St.  Paul's  boy.  He  told  of  one  on  an  ocean 
steamer  in  collision,  when  it  was  thought  the  ship  might 
sink  any  minute,  who  had  been  asked  what  his  thoughts 
were.  The  man  said,  "  I  could  think  of  nothing  but  the 
last  words  of  the  Te  Deum,  'Lord,  in  Thee  have  I 
trusted ;  let  me  never  be  confounded.'  "  Dr.  Coit  would 
certainly  have  recognized  that  as  representing  the  spirit 
he  sought  to  develop,  if  not  create. 

2.  The  Church  as  the  Sphere  of  Our  Lord's  Activity. 
— I  have  no  clear  recollection  of  anything  Dr.  Coit 
said  about  the  Church ;  but  he  left  the  impression  that, 
if  the  one  thing  most  worth  while  was  contact  with  our 
Lord,  the  only  way  this  was  possible,  or  at  any  rate  the 

founder,  Marcus  Reynolds,  one  day  seized  me  in  the  "  Vale  of 
Thermopyte,"  a  passage  back  of  the  Study,  saying,  "You've 
got  to  do  something.  I  want  to  start  a  literary  society;  and 
as  you  aren't  afraid  of  the  Doctor,  you've  got  to  ask  permis- 
sion." Thus  the  Cadmean  started.  I  remember  that  the 
Doctor  suggested  as  motto  Per  minora  majora,  which  I  liked 
very  much;  but  the  other  boys  preferred  Sapientia  est  opes, 
devised  by  Niel  Gray. 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  21 

most  satisfactory,  was  in  the  life  of  the  Church.  Cer- 
tainly the  religious  teaching  of  St.  Paul's  gave  some 
conception  of  the  Church  as  Our  Lord's  Body,  intro- 
ducing into  "  heavenly  places."  We  knew  nothing  of 
discussions  about  it,  but  felt  it  in  operation.  Dr.  Coit 
was  one  whose  sole  interest  in  life  was  to  bring  souls  in 
touch  with  God ;  and  to  him  the  Church  was  everything. 
We  heard  no  talk  of  priests ;  but  if  ever  there  was  one 
naturaliter  sacerdotalis,  it  was  he.  I  never  heard  him 
speak  of  ecclesiastical  differences.  Being  curious  about 
such  things,  I  hoped  that  when  he  came  in  his  Confirma- 
tion instructions  to  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  in  the 
Creed,  he  would  explain  why  we  should  be  Episcopalians 
rather  than  Presbyterians  or  Roman  Catholics.  I  was 
disappointed  that  he  said  nothing  of  these  things;  but 
he  certainly  left  us  with  New  Testament  thoughts  about 
the  Church,  and  with  the  impression  that  by  baptism 
we  were  incorporated  into  the  Catholic  Church,  which 
for  us  was  represented  by  the  Episcopal  Church  in  which 
we  were  being  trained.  Everything  tended  to  make  us 
devoted  to  this.  The  religious  life  at  St.  Paul's  was 
inspired  by  an  ideal  which  seemed  to  leave  nothing  to 
be  desired.  It  was  itself  proof  and  justification  of  what 
it  was  supposed  to  represent.  Dr.  Coit  moved  on  a 
lofty  plane  from  which  he  viewed  the  ordinary  course  of 
things  with  weariness,  sadness,  impatience,  and  disdain, 
showing  a  prophet's  fiery  defiance  of  the  world  and 
worldliness  in  the  Church.  Though  painfully  conscious 
of  general  failure  among  churchmen  to  live  up  to  their 
principles,  he  never  doubted  that  the  principles  were  in 
the  Church  and  behind  him  in  spite  of  failures  in  prac- 


22  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

tice.  The  very  loftiness  of  his  ideals  made  him  de- 
pressed at  these:  but  his  consciousness  of  the  holiness 
of  his  aspirations,  of  the  consecration  of  his  aims  for 
education  and  pastoral  care,  the  undoubted  fact  that 
for  the  work  he  had  in  hand  there  was  no  better  avail- 
able substitute,  would  have  convinced  him  that  he  was 
doing  the  work  of  Our  Lord  in  His  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  as  it  did  all  those  who  knew  his  work  and 
could  gauge  its  value. 

3.  Holy  Communion  as  the  Central  Fact  in  the 
Church's  Life. — If  the  one  great  thing  was  to  be  in 
union  with  Christ,  and  this  was  made  possible  in  the 
Church,  we  were  not  left  in  doubt  at  St.  Paul's  as  to  how 
most  definitely  this  was  to  be.  Communion  with  the  Holy 
One  was  through  Holy  Communion.  We  went  to  chapel 
every  morning,  three  times  on  Sunday,  had  prayers  in 
the  various  houses  every  evening,  and  "  Sunday  Evening 
Hymn  "  in  the  Big  Study.  All  these  services  were  in- 
teresting and  inspiring  because  admirably  planned,  brief 
and  brisk,  with  telling  use  of  aptly  chosen  hymns.  In 
spite  of  habitual  grumbling  about  "  too  much  church," 
the  boys  liked  them.  The  Chapel  was  packed  for  volun- 
tary services  in  Lent.  But  with  all  these  services,  the 
most  thoughtless  small  boy  was  not  left  in  any  doubt  as 
to  which  of  all  of  them  was  of  chief  and  unique  im- 
portance. Only  communicants  were  present  for  the 
whole  of  the  Communion  Service;  but  the  whole  School 
was  made  to  feel  that  this  was  the  supreme  privilege. 
There  were  celebrations  of  the  Communion  on  Sundays, 
Saints'  Days,  and  oftener  during  Lent.  All  communi- 
cants on  the  place  were  expected  to  receive  once  a 
month;  and  on  the  Saturday  evening  preceding  the 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  28 

monthly  Communion,  there  was  devotional  preparation 
at  "  Communicants'  Meeting."  At  this  time,  Dr.  Coit 
was  at  his  best.  He  raised  a  feeling  of  great  expec- 
tancy. Our  Lord  was  coming  to  us.  We  were  to  re- 
ceive Him  at  the  Eucharist  in  the  early  morning.  Here 
was  to  be  an  experience  of  "  eternal  life."  In  all  the 
arrangements  for  our  Communions,  we  were  hedged 
about,  so  that  there  might  be  a  deepening  of  spiritual 
impressions.  We  were  taught  that  to  receive  monthly 
represented  the  minimum  of  good  practice;  that  we 
ought  to  regard  weekly  reception  as  normal ;  and  that 
the  ideal  for  very  devout  people  was  to  receive  every 
day.  As  a  VI  Former  at  St.  Paul's,  I  think  I  tried  to 
go  to  Communion  every  Sunday ;  at  any  rate  from  1890 
I  expected  never  to  miss  a  Sunday  or  Saint's  Day. 

It  was  by  Dr.  Coit  that  I  was  taught  to  believe  in 
the  Real  Presence.  I  do  not  think  he  ever  spoke  of  it 
in  any  technical  sort  of  way :  but  from  the  time  of  my 
Confirmation,  I  accepted  it  as  matter  of  course  that  no 
member  of  the  Catholic  Church  could  think  of  the 
Eucharist  in  any  other  way  than  as  mode  and  guar- 
antee of  the  Presence  of  Our  Lord  Himself.  All  our  in- 
structions as  to  reverent  approach  to  the  altar  and 
reception  emphasized  this.  I  often  think  of  the  altar  of 
a  church  as  in  a  blaze  of  glory  typifying  the  Divine 
Presence;  but  the  one  in  which  I  have  most  often  imag- 
ined this  sacramental  Shekinah  is  that  of  the  Old  Chapel 
at  St.  Paul's  School.* 

•  In  a  letter  I  had  from  Dr.  Coit  while  I  was  in  Oxford, 
dated  January  4,  1893,  is  a  characteristic  reference  to  Holy 
Communion. 

"  I  wish  I  could  see  you  in  my  study  an  hour  or  two  this 


24.  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

To  St.  Paul's  also  I  owe  a  vivid  sense  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  Christian  Year.  Not  only  was  I  there  at 
an  impressionable  age;  but  I  have  never  lived  in  any 
place  where  Church  seasons  were  observed  with  so  much 
system  and  so  much  sense.  The  note  of  the  season  was 
always  sounded,  largely  by  use  of  hymns  and  colors,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  have  its  full  educational  value.  So 
vivid  was  the  consciousness  of  the  Church  Year  at  St. 
Paul's,  that,  in  later  years  in  Oxford  and  theological 
seminaries  where  the  same  sort  of  thing  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, I  felt  the  lack  of  something  that  had  existed  at 
St.  Paul's.  Dr.  Muhlenberg  had  the  instinct  for  ec- 
clesiastical "  settings  " ;  Dr.  Coit  gave  them  deeper  sig- 
nificance: but  many  people  with  identical  convictions 
and  aims  lack  their  ability  to  give  them  effective  ex- 
pression. 

Our  Lord,  the  Church,  the  Eucharist,  as  indicating 
an  order  of  thought  and  experience  whereby  salvation 
comes  to  individual  souls,  would  seem  to  me  to  sum- 
marize the  teaching  of  Dr.  Henry  Coit.  In  looking 
back,  it  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  substance  of  what 
I  gained  from  the  religious  teaching  at  St.  Paul's ;  and 
that  subsequent  training  and  experience  have  been  merely 

evening.  I  know  that  you  are  keeping  uppermost  that 
spiritual  self -discipline  without  which  our  mental  training  and 
acquirements  are  comparatively  fruitless.  I  think  the  simple 
attendance  on  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  week  by  week,  and  form- 
ing the  habit  of  careful  preparation  and  frequent  reception, 
remembering  into  Whose  Presence  we  come,  and  for  what  we 
hang  upon  His  Grace,  will  do  more  for  stable  peace  and  true 
growth  in  moral  strength  than  any  other  means  whatever. 
Why  should  we  not  have  joy  and  peace  in  believing  T  And 
there  is  no  fear  that  we  shall  overestimate  His  love  to  us." 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  25 

the  development  of  it.  I  have  not  been  a  good  example 
of  the  St.  Paul's  spirit ;  but  from  the  School  I  carried 
away  these  ideals  as  a  standard,  which,  in  spite  of  my 
personal  failures,  I  have  never  lost. 

Dr.  Coit  influenced  me  as  no  other  when  I  was  a  boy: 
he  did  not  influence  me  much  as  a  young  man,  although 
I  was  three  years  a  master  in  the  School  during  his  life- 
time. His  mission  in  life  was  that  of  "  apostle  to  boys," 
for  whom  he  was  "  an  external  conscience,"  and  for 
whose  spiritual  welfare  he  was  so  deeply  concerned  that 
he  felt  only  good  could  come  to  them  by  following  his 
admonitions  with  obedient  deference.  If,  as  they  grew 
older,  they  showed  signs  of  thinking  and  acting  for 
themselves,  he  seemed  to  distrust  this  as  a  sign  of  stray- 
ing from  the  ways  of  safety.  He  did  not  seem  to  rea- 
lize that  his  boys  ever  grew  up ;  and,  as  he  was  at  his 
best  in  his  great  family  of  deferential  boys  and  young 
men,  so  he  was  not  wholly  at  his  ease  or  at  his  best  in  the 
world  of  men  elsewhere.  There  was  no  reason  why  he 
should  have  been.  His  mission  in  life  was  to  the  boys  of 
St.  Paul's.  But  many  of  the  most  loyal  sons  of  St. 
Paul's  found  that  the  Doctor  did  not  help  them  as  much 
as  others  with  problems  of  college  and  later  life.  He 
preferred  to  have  his  boys  listen  rather  than  speak; 
hence  it  was  not  possible  to  have  that  sort  of  full  and 
frank  discussion  with  him  that  a  young  man  frequently 
wishes  to  have  with  an  elder.  The  Doctor  would  be  very 
likely  to  say,  "  Yes,  my  dear,  I  know  exactly  how  you 
feel,"  and  then  proceed  to  lay  down  law — very  excellent 
law — about  things  irrelevant,  allowing  no  interruption 
and  giving  a  gracious  dismissal  before  one  had  had  a 


26  ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL 

chance  to  say  what  he  had  really  come  for.  I  never  lost 
anything  of  my  devotion  to  him ;  but,  as  older  boy  and 
young  master  at  St.  Paul's,  when  I  felt  the  need  of  talk- 
ing freely  about  personal  problems  and  puzzles,  I  never 
went  to  the  Doctor,  although  I  knew  he  would  have  ex- 
pected it,  but  turned  rather  to  Dr.  Joseph  Coit,  Mr. 
Parker,  and  Mr.  Stanley  Emery. 

Only  one  thing  in  my  subsequent  connection  with  the 
School  has  any  bearing  on  the  purpose  of  this  narrative. 
In  1906,  when  Dr.  Henry  Ferguson  was  Rector,  I  was 
elected  Vice-rector  with  succession  to  the  Rectorship  on 
Dr.  Ferguson's  retirement.  I  did  not  wish  the  place 
for  myself  nor  myself  for  the  place,  but  at  first  felt 
bound  to  accept  for  two  reasons:  like  many  others  I 
wished  to  see  the  Rectorship  go  to  an  old  boy  in  Orders 
who  would  be  loyal  to  the  Coit  tradition,  and  the  Trus- 
tees seemed  likely  to  choose  no  other  who  would  accept ; 
and,  as  an  old  Ferguson  scholar,  I  wished  to  do  any- 
thing that  Dr.  Ferguson  asked  of  me.  For  several 
months  I  had  in  imagination  to  try  to  relate  myself  to 
the  manifold  interests  and  activities  of  the  School  and 
to  think  of  ending  my  days  as  Rector  of  St.  Paul's. 
But  although  I  was  interested  in  all  aspects  of  the  life 
and  work,  I  saw  that  the  one  thing  I  was  keen  about  was 
the  chapel  services;  and  that  I  could  not  view  with 
enthusiasm  any  work  which  was  not  distinctly  and  ex- 
clusively that  of  the  Church.  Assuming  that  I  might 
have  adapted  myself  to  the  varied  demands  of  the  posi- 
tion, I  did  not  want  to  abandon  what  seemed  obviously 
my  own  special  line  of  work.  For  the  first  time,  I 
recognized  clearly  what  for  me  was  the  "stimulus  of 


ST.  PAUL'S  SCHOOL  27 

narrowness,"  and  said  to  Dr.  Ferguson,  "  I  am  an  ec- 
clesiastic through  and  through."  He  was  very  kind, 
said  the  supposed  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  suc- 
cession had  incidentally  solved  several  minor  problems 
for  him,  and  gave  full  permission  to  me  to  recall  the 
acceptance. 

I  have  spoken  of  this  because  it  led  to  my  recogni- 
tion, for  the  first  time,  that  my  standard  of  interests, 
if  not  of  values,  is  strictly  ecclesiastical — ecclesiastical 
as  distinct  from  intellectual,  moral  or  spiritual.  As 
predominantly  interested  in  things  of  the  Church,  "  I 
am  ecclesiastic,  through  and  through." 


CHAPTER  m 

OXFORD 

IN  1891,  I  went  to  Oxford,  was  for  three  years  in 
residence  in  Keble  College,  took  my  B.A.  degree  in  the 
Honour  School  of  Theology  in  1894,  and  lived  for  a 
year,  as  a  graduate,  at  the  Pusey  House.  The  four 
years  in  England  were  the  happiest  of  my  life.  All  my 
associations  were  of  the  pleasantest  sort,  their  begin- 
nings resulting  from  letters  of  introduction  given  me  by 
Mr.  Parker  of  St.  Paul's,  an  old  Keble  man,  whose  foot- 
steps I  followed  throughout  my  training.  In  Keble,  I 
owed  most  to  Dr.  Walter  Lock,  afterwards  Warden, 
who  was  my  tutor.  His  advice  about  courses  was  of  the 
best;  his  Mods,  lectures  on  the  Gospels  in  Keble,  and 
Theology  lectures  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles  in  Oriel,  were 
among  the  best  I  attended;  above  all,  his  patient  criti- 
cism of  the  crude  papers  I  submitted  to  him  was  the 
most  helpful  I  have  ever  received.  I  had  a  very  long 
lecture-list,  taking  many  courses  which  interfered  with 
necessary  work  for  Schools :  but  I  was  keen  to  make  the 
most  of  every  sort  of  opportunity,  and,  on  the  whole, 
was  satisfied  that  I  had  done  so.  I  have  never  cared  so 
much  for  any  place  as  for  Oxford,  every  stone  and  turn 
of  which  I  came  to  know  well ;  and  for  that  reason  I  have 
not  cared  to  go  back  to  it,  a  ghost  out  of  place,  haunt- 
ing the  scene  of  youthful  hopefulness  and  activity. 

Oxford  gave  form   and  substance  to  the   religious 


OXFORD  29 

teaching  of  St.  Paul's.  As  a  resident  in  Keble  College 
and  the  Pusey  House,  I  lived  in  the  concentrated  atmos- 
phere of  the  Oxford  Movement,  regarding  Keble  and 
Pusey  with  filial  loyalty  as  the  embodiments  of  sound 
Church  principles  and  sound  learning,  and  hearing  and 
knowing  much  of  those  who  were  their  most  direct  suc- 
cessors. Although  Dr.  Liddon  died  in  1890,  I  have  a 
feeling  of  having  almost  known  him,  as  I  lived  with  those 
who  were  constantly  quoting  him  and  speaking  of  him 
so  intimately,  that  he  seemed  to  be  just  around  the 
corner.  In  both  Keble  and  the  Pusey  House  were  the 
books  of  his  library,  with  many  of  his  pungent  com- 
ments on  the  margins.  I  was  especially  interested  to 
discover  in  the  Pusey  House  library  proof-copies  of  his 
Bamptons  sent  to  Dr.  Pusey,  with  the  latter's  comments 
and  letters  about  them,  and  amazed  to  learn  that 
Pusey  did  not  approve  of  them  as  "  Germanizing  "  in 
tendency. 

In  the  early  '90's,  however,  the  men  most  looked  up 
to  by  High  Church  undergraduates  were  the  writers  in 
Lux  Mundi;  who  were  regarded  as  constituting  an  inner 
circle  of  the  elect,  the  most  stable  element  in  the  Church 
of  England's  present,  and  safest  guarantee  of  its 
future.  I  knew  none  of  them  well  except  Dr.  Lock 
and  later  Dr.  Ottley,  but  had  a  slight  acquaintance  with 
several  of  the  others,  was  in  the  way  of  seeing  and  hear- 
ing much  of  all  of  them,  and  followed  their  books,  ser- 
mons, and  lectures  with  avidity.  I  attended  courses 
given  by  Moberly  and  Ottley,  heard  Illingworth  deliver 
his  Bamptons  on  Personality,  and  for  three  years  never 
missed  a  sermon  or  lecture  given  bj  Gore,  Not  having 


80  OXFORD 

had  any  training  in  philosophy,  I  did  not  know  enough 
to  take  in  the  subtler  points  in  their  theology  and 
apologetic;  their  general  attitude  toward  religious  and 
ecclesiastical  questions  I  did  ultimately  make  my  own. 
As  an  undergraduate,  I  was  keenly  observant  and  at- 
tentive, though  slow-witted  and  ruminative,  taking  no 
part  whatever  in  the  discussions  of  select  gatherings, 
junior  common-rooms  and  the  Union,  whereby  young 
Oxford  forms  opinions  by  processes  of  debate.  I  was 
simply  a  good  listener,  making  the  most  of  opportuni- 
ties. I  am  bound  to  emphasize  the  Lux  Mwndi  aspect 
of  my  education,  since  no  better  account  can  be  given 
of  a  young  man's  ideals  than  by  indicating  the  older 
men  whom  he  admires.  The  old  spell  was  all  brought 
back  recently  by  reading  the  Life  of  J.  R.  Illingworth. 
I  remember  having  the  feeling  that  the  annual  gather- 
ings at  Longworth,  of  which  I  had  been  told,  repre- 
sented a  chief  safeguard  of  Christian  civilization ! 

The  most  influential  of  the  men  of  this  circle  was 
Charles  Gore,  the  Principal  of  the  Pusey  House.  From 
him  chiefly,  I  think,  I  learned  to  believe  in  the  necessity 
of  relating  all  things  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation ; 
in  the  Church  of  England  as  the  best  exponent  of 
Liberal  Catholicism ;  and  in  the  untenability  of  Roman 
Catholic  claims.  His  teaching  about  Inspiration  I  ac- 
cepted on  authority.  It  always  seemed  to  me  that  he 
was  best  represented  by  his  Bamptons,  on  the  Incarna- 
tion, and  by  his  St.  Asaph  lectures,  for  which  I  espe- 
cially cared,  on  The  Mission  of  the  Church.* 

*  In  later  years  I  have  always  found  all  his  utterances 
supremely  helpful  except  that  I  could  not  assent  to  some 
things  in  The  Body  of  Christ, 


OXFORD  81 

In  1901  I  was  asked  to  write  a  paper  for  the  Middle- 
sex Archdeaconry  in  Connecticut  on  Religious  In- 
fluences m  Oxford.  I  quote  from  this,  written  at  a 
time  when  my  recollections  and  impressions  were  more 
vivid  than  they  are  now.  In  this  was  a  passage  about 
Gore. 


"  No  one  else  seemed  to  have  so  profound  a  grasp  of  the 
different  sides  of  essential  Christian  truth;  no  one  else 
seemed  to  have  genuine  sympathy  with  so  many  kinds  of 
people ;  no  one  else  could  do  so  much  to  rid  men  of  intellec- 
tual difficulties  concerning  the  faith ;  no  one  else  could  make 
so  direct  an  appeal  to  the  consciences  of  young  men.  This 
was  perhaps  the  more  remarkable  in  that  Gore  was  the 
chosen  figure-head  of  a  party,  the  uncompromising  cham- 
pion of  the  definite  theology  of  the  Creeds.  First  and  fore- 
most, he  would  have  been  regarded  as  the  exponent  of 
conservative  principles.  But  he  was  also  in  support  of  all 
principles  of  progress.  Without  claiming  to  be  a  specialist 
in  any  department  of  literary  criticism  or  scientific  research, 
he  was  able,  through  possession  of  faculties  highly  trained 
in  schools  of  philosophy  and  theology  and  by  unremitting 
study  of  persons  and  things,  to  indicate  to  puzzled  minds 
standpoints  from  which  to  view  different  departments  of 
knowledge,  and  the  general  considerations  and  methods 
whereby  difficulties  might  be  remedied.  He  had  a  rare 
faculty  of  indicating  proportion,  the  relative  importance  of 
things  and  the  unexpected  dovetailing  of  apparently  con- 
flicting truths.  He  had  unique  influence  in  saving  and 
strengthening  the  faith  of  many  waverers. 

"  The  burden  of  all  his  teaching  was  the  Incarnation. 
This  had  been  the  subject  of  his  lectures  in  the  School  of 
Theology  and  of  his  Bamptons,  and  like  most  of  his  col- 


32  OXFORD 

leagues,  he  was  ever  insisting  that  the  truth  of  this  is  the 
basis  of  all  else.  His  concern  with  other  questions  was 
always  to  show  how  all  truths  are  related  to  this ;  in  the 
face  of  questions  raised  by  scientific  research  to  show 
that  the  new  knowledge  did  not  compel  us  to  abandon  any- 
thing really  belonging  to  faith  and  delivered  by  revelation. 
He  insisted,  of  course,  strongly  on  the  distinction  between 
essentials  and  the  mass  of  associations  and  theories  which 
have  grown  up  around  them,  many  of  which  have  to  be 
abandoned,  though  the  fundamental  truths  stand  every 
test  of  time  and  scrutiny.  The  actual  result  of  his  influence 
in  Oxford  was  that  many  men,  wrestling  with  doubts,  were 
made  to  feel  that  the  results  of  modern  discovery  are  en- 
tirely consistent  with  historic  Christianity,  and  that  we 
need  only  time  and  patience  to  work  out  our  problems  in 
detail. 

"  Apart  from  his  intellectual  power,  he  had  great  moral 
force  felt  by  those  who  came  in  close  contact  with  him. 
This  came  from  earnestness,  humility,  and  power  of  intense 
sympathy.  It  was  this  which  made  him,  without  attractions 
of  presence  or  manner,  a  great  preacher.  Men  were  drawn 
by  his  obvious  genuineness.  His  exposition  of  the  Scriptures 
was  scholarly,  but  always  simple,  '  practical  expositions  ' 
which  were  not  critical  commentaries  but  devotional  studies." 

The  paper  commented  at  some  length  on  three  spe- 
cial characteristics  of  the  Oxford  men,  comprehensive- 
ness, intellectual  humility,  and  the  practical  application 
of  Christian  principles  as  shown  in  the  work  of  the 
Christian  Social  Union. 

"  The  first  thing  is  a  little  hard  to  express  by  a  single 
Ford,  perhaps  the  nearest  equivalent  is  comprehensive- 


OXFORD  83 

ness,  using  the  word  with  reference  to  different  lines  of 
thought  and  modes  of  development;  something  more  than 
vague  sympathy  with  ideas  different  from  one's  own,  some- 
thing more  than  an  effort  to  understand  different  stand- 
points; a  definite,  determined  effort,  not  merely  to  under- 
stand, but  actually  to  represent  several  schools  of  thought 
instead  of  one,  to  focus  all  lines  of  development.  ...  I 
remember  in  1893  a  sermon  by  Dean  Wickham  of  Lincoln, 
delivered  not  long  after  the  publication  of  the  Lives  of  Dr. 
Pusey  and  Dean  Stanley.  He  said  in  substance:  *  We  have 
all  lately  read  the  biographies  of  two  great  Oxford  profes- 
sors, who  in  their  lifetime  were  much  in  conflict.  I  wonder 
whether  we  were  not  all  impressed  both  by  the  fact  that 
they  had  much  more  in  common  than  they  knew,  and  that 
we  have  much  in  common  with  both  of  them.'  That  was  a 
characteristic  Oxford  comment.  Men  wished  to  feel,  '  Dr. 
Pusey  and  Dean  Stanley  may  have  been  often  at  logger- 
heads ;  but  I  belong  to  the  parties  of  both  of  them,  and  both 
of  them  to  some  extent  belong  to  me.' 

"  Another  notable  characteristic  was  intellectual  humility, 
something  always  seen  in  men  of  the  highest  type;  the 
absence  of  that  dogmatism  which  results  from  isolation,  from 
the  little  learning  that  is  dangerous,  and  from  sheer  un- 
troubled ignorance.  They  were  always  ready  to  recognize 
the  limitations  of  our  knowledge,  not  in  the  least  afraid  to 
say  '  I  don't  know,'  not  in  the  least  afraid  to  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  difficulties.  There  was  a  fearless  facing  of  facts, 
and  on  many  subjects  habitual  suspense  of  judgment.  .  .  . 
They  gave  little  satisfaction  to  young  and  impatient  persons 
who  wished  to  '  know  it  all,'  or  to  old  and  easily  disturbed 
persons  who  wished  to  '  hang  it  all.'  They  did  not  satisfy 
craving  for  short  and  easy  solutions,  for  in  pronouncing  on 
disputed  points,  they  often  got  no  further  than  '  Very 
probably,  but.'  Those  who  wished  for  only  one  side  of  all 


34  OXFORD 

questions,  on  which  they  could  be  comfortably  shelved, 
would  be  irritated  by  reminder  that  there  are  usually  two 
sides,  and  driven  to  desperation  by  suggestion  of  three  or 
four.  Oxford  is  not  a  place  conducive  to  self-complacency, 
though  it  is  calculated  to  inspire  a  deep  zeal  for  truth,  and 
to  connect  this  with  religion.  Dominus  illuminatio  mea." 

There  were  also  comments  on  the  preaching  of 
Oxford  men,  especially  those  then  leaders  in  London, 
Scott  Holland,  Newbolt,  Gore,  Winnington-Ingram, 
then  at  Oxford  House,  Bethnal  Green,  and  Lang. 

".The  one  word  that  best  describes  their  preaching  is 
directness.  Its  aim  is  manifestly  and  intensely  practical. 
They  succeed  in  talking  directly  to  you,  even  though  you  be 
an  inconspicuous  unit  in  a  congregation  of  thousands.  There 
is  no  attempt  at  showy  rhetoric  or  elocution.  Language  is 
simple,  often  homely;  the  eloquence,  if  there  is  any,  that 
which  comes  of  earnestness.  Not  that  there  is  absence  of 
profound  thought  and  close  reasoning;  none  show  more. 
...  A  sermon,  or  even  short  address,  is  looked  on  as 
bringing  too  serious  a  responsibility  to  be  undertaken  '  un- 
advisedly or  lightly/  as  a  sacrament  of  truth." 

Of  all  the  teachers  in  Oxford,  however,  the  one  to 
whom  I  probably  owe  most  was  Dr.  William  Bright, 
Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Regius  Professor  of  Ec- 
clesiastical History.  My  decision  to  go  to  Oxford  was 
made  after  an  interview  with  Father  Hall  (afterward 
Bishop  of  Vermont)  in  Boston,  in  which,  among  other 
pieces  of  good  advice,  he  told  me  to  be  sure  and  attend 
Dr.  Bright's  lectures  on  the  General  Councils.  The 
course  took  three  years.  Fortunately  it  was  beginning 


OXFORD  35 

in  the  Michaelmas  Term  of  1891,  so  that  during  the 
whole  of  my  undergraduate  course  I  was  making  under 
Dr.  Bright's  auspices  a  progress  from  Nicaea  to  Chal- 
cedon.  This  course  was  my  favorite  above  all  others ; 
I  took  special  pleasure  in  doing  written  work  which 
Dr.  Bright  criticized;  and  was  more  than  pleased  to 
have  him  say  that  I  had  been  "  one  of  my  most  assidu- 
ous pupils." 

I  had  always  been  interested  in  history.  As  a  small 
boy,  my  two  grandfathers  encouraged  me  to  study  the 
history  of  the  United  States:  and  the  interest  thus 
roused  led  me  to  read  every  book  on  American  history 
which  either  of  them  possessed.  At  St.  Paul's,  I  had 
special  liking  for  the  history  classes,  especially  the 
English  History;  and  my  first  article  in  print,  a  prize 
*'  miscellaneous  article "  for  the  Horae,  was  "  A 
Dream "  of  the  Athenian  acropolis  in  the  time  of 
Pericles.  Of  Church  History  I  knew  nothing,  although 
Bishop  Kip's  Double  Witness  had  given  me  some  notion 
of  the  position  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  some 
question  or  other  which  puzzled  me  had  resulted  in 
giving  an  impression  that  in  religious  matters  a  safe 
person  to  follow  was  St.  Augustine!  This  may  have 
been  due  to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Coit  referred  occasionally 
with  great  respect  to  "  St.  Austin,"  that  he  had  given 
me  a  translation  of  Augustine's  Confessions,  and  that 
the  school  motto  was  said  to  be  from  Augustine.*  I  may 

*  Ea  discamus  in  terris,  quorum  scientia  perseverat  in  coelis. 
I  have  never  been  able  to  discover  the  source  of  this  in  spite 
of  several  excursions  into  Migne  for  the  purpose,  nor  have 
others  who  have  made  the  same  quest.  The  sentiment  is  to  be 


36  OXFORD 

have,  when  I  went  to  Oxford,  intended  to  specialize  in 
Church  History :  at  any  rate  it  proved  a  favorite  study. 
In  the  early  '90's,  no  one  in  Oxford  better  repre- 
sented the  patristic  ideals  of  the  first  Tractarians  than 
Dr.  Bright.  To  him  the  fathers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  were  the  most  real  of  all  people,  as  well  as 
most  safe  guides  for  all  time.  They  represented  the 
Catholic  Church  in  which  he  believed,  and  it  was  their 
spirit  which  he  wished  to  see  perpetuated  in  England 
and  America.  It  was  not  so  much  that  he  made  them 
live  in  his  lectures,  as  that  they  made  him  live  in  all 
that  he  undertook.  To  him  the  supreme  personalities 
were  those  of  the  great  Doctors  of  the  Church;  the 
supreme  duty  patient  defence  of  the  Faith  and  insistence 
on  the  interdependence  of  Belief  and  Life.  The  com- 
pactness and  compression  of  his  books  give  little  notion 
of  the  vivacity  of  his  lectures.  The  most  characteristic 
is  his  Lessons  from  the  Lives  of  Three  Great  Fathers; 
but  to  understand  him  best,  one  must  read  his  poems, 
especially  the  hymns.  The  moral  of  all  his  teaching  was 
the  duty  of  loyalty  to  the  Faith  as  measure  of  devotion 
to  our  Lord.  Hence  his  special  delight  in  St. 
Athanasius. 

"  Ask  we  the  secret  of  his  strength? 

Ask  what  his  heart  believed; — 
The  truth  in  all  its  breadth  and  length, 

From  Paul  and  John  received: 
What  nerved  hijn  such  a  race  to  run 
Was  love  to  God's  eternal  Son. 

found  in  various  Augustinian  treatises;  but  the  exact  quota- 
tion is  elusive. 


OXFORD  37 

"  'Twas  not  the  mere  polemic  zeal 

For  Council  or  for  Creed ; 
For  both  he  set  his  face  like  steel, 

To  serve  the  Church's  need ; 
But  both  were  prized  for  His  dear  sake 
Whose  rights  were  in  that  strife  at  stake."  * 

Dr.   Bright's  lectures  left  three  chief  impressions: 

(1)  the  all-importance  of  firm  faith  in  the  incarnation; 

(2)  the  supreme  value  of  the  General  Councils  as  ex- 
pressing the  thought  and  life  of  the  Church;  (3)  the 
paramount  importance  of  patristic  authority.     In  all 
this  he  rightly  represented  classic  Tractarianism ;  and 
to  him  would  probably  apply  a  comment  of  Dr.  Dar- 
well  Stone's,  that  "  the  Tractarians  seem  to  have  read 
into  the  formularies  of  the  Church  of  England  that 
teaching  of  the  ancient  Church  with  which  the  minds  of 
their  leaders  were  imbued." 

A  limitation  of  Dr.  Bright's  was  his  concentration  of 
attention  on  the  evidence  of  patristic  literary  docu- 
ments. He  ignored  much  evidence  of  monuments,  local 
traditions,  and  existing  institutions,  which  bore  directly 
on  subjects  he  had  in  hand.f  I  remember,  after  reading 
De  Rossi,  being  dimly  conscious  that  he  ought  to  have 
made  more  use  of  the  Catacombs.  I  learned  from  his 

•  First  Exile  of  St.  Athanasius  in  Hymns  and  Other  Verses. 

f "  History  does  not  mean  only  books,  manuscripts,  docu- 
ments, scientific  historians.  It  means  also  the  moral  person- 
ality of  empires  and  kingdoms :  the  living  and  ever-accumulat- 
ing tradition  of  human  action  and  human  knowledge  embodied 
in  usages,  customs,  laws,  institutions.  All  these  are  witnesses 
and  testify  with  articulate  voice.  The  history  of  the  Church 
is  the  Church  itself."  Manning :  Religio  Viatoris,  p.  70. 


38  OXFORD 

Life  that  he  never  visited  them  until  1894!  In  such 
work  on  history  as  I  was  able  to  do  in  Oxford,  I  found 
a  useful  supplement  to  Dr.  Bright's  methods  in  what 
could  be  learned  then  of  the  methods  of  Sir  William 
Ramsay.  From  his  books  I  gained  a  first  glimpse  of  the 
far-reaching  importance  of  monumental  archaeology. 
Although  I  read  much  Church  History  lying  outside 
my  "  period  "  for  Final  Schools,  the  way  in  which  Dr. 
Bright  made  the  first  four  Councils  stand  out  in  clear 
relief  led  me  always  to  give  them  disproportionate 
prominence.  While  this  was  doubtless  chiefly  due  to 
limitations  of  my  own  knowledge  and  vision,  I  think 
also  it  reflected  something  not  uncommon  in  Tractarian 
Oxford.  Only  recently  have  I  become  emancipated 
from  the  idea  that  everything  most  worth  while  cul- 
minated at  the  Council  of  Chalcedon ;  and  that  the  best 
that  can  now  be  done  in  the  Church  is  to  perpetuate 
Chalcedonian  balance  of  thought,  and  fifth  century 
methods  of  discipline  and  organization.  Development 
was  quite  legitimate  in  earlier  days ;  but  all  change  was 
dangerous  innovation  after  450.  Leo  I,  falling  within 
the  period,  was  to  be  received  with  great  respect; 
Gregory  I,  coming  a  little  later,  was  to  be  scrutinized 
with  suspicion.  Although  greatly  admiring  the  Eastern 
Church,  I  could  criticize  its  stopping  short  with  the 
Seventh  General  Council  and  St.  John  Damascene  as 
"  mummied  Christianity,"  not  noticing  that  an  "  ap- 
peal to  antiquity,"  conceived  as  complete  three  centuries 
earlier,  was  something  more  mummied  still;  and  while 
disparaging  Protestant  appeal  to  Scripture,  failed  to 
detect  that  there  was  little  difference  between  a  leap 


OXFORD  39 

from  St.  Paul  to  Luther  with  eyes  shut,  and  one  with 
eyes  open  from  St.  Augustine  to  Keble !  Yet  something 
of  that  sort  is  the  tacit  assumption  of  those  who  confine 
attention  to  "  the  undivided  Church  "  and  the  Oxford 
Movement,  as  many  Anglicans  have  done. 

From  Dr.  Bright  I  derived  chiefly  my  belief  that  the 
claims  of  the  modern  papacy  are  unhistorical.  He 
emphasized  everything  in  conciliar  history  that  tells 
against  them ;  and,  as  I  came  to  see  later,  unconsciously 
failed  to  give  due  weight  to  considerations  on  the  other 
side.  Not  that  he  would  have  been  consciously  unfair; 
but  he  laid  all  stress  on  a  point  on  which  he  felt  the 
conciliar  evidence  to  be  luminously  convincing.  His 
general  line  of  criticism,  summarized  in  The  Roman  See 
in  the  Early  Church,  was  that  of  Father  Puller's  Primi- 
tive Saints  and  the  See  of  Rome,  and  of  Denney's 
Papalism.  The  early  primacy  of  the  Roman  Bishops 
was,  of  course,  admitted ;  but  in  the  early  centuries 
the  papacy,  as  it  later  existed,  was  conspicuous  by  its 
absence.  The  most  complete  confutation  of  the  modern 
claims  was  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  early  Roman 
Church  itself.  The  Vatican  Council  of  1870,  no  less 
than  the  Forged  Decretals,  had  falsified  history  and  cut 
under  any  theory  of  development  such  as  Newman's. 
Yet  he  left  the  impression  that  there  was  nothing  very 
dangerous,  despite  the  twenty-eighth  Canon  of  Chalce- 
don,  in  acquiescing  in  all  that  was  claimed  by  St.  Leo 
and  acknowledged  by  St.  Augustine. 

From  1894-95,  the  year  I  was  living  in  Pusey 
House,  dates  an  especial  interest  in  all  that  pertains  to 
the  Eastern  Orthodox  Churches.  Both  from  books  read 


40  OXFORD 

at  that  time  and  from  some  lectures  on  Russia  given 
by  Mr.  W.  J.  Birkbeck,  I  became  strongly  convinced 
of  the  prime  importance  of  an  understanding  between 
Easterns  and  Anglicans,  and  of  the  bearing  of  the 
existence  and  history  of  the  Eastern  Churches  on  the 
validity  of  papal  claims.  I  owed  even  more  of  this 
interest  to  the  conversation  of  Dr.  F.  E.  Brightman, 
in  whose  room  I  spent  many  evenings  between  supper 
and  Compline.  He  had  just  come  from  the  East  and 
was  correcting  proof  for  his  book  on  Eastern  Liturgies. 
He  gave  me  many  thrills  of  a  kind  I  most  enjoyed. 
"  There  is  something  known  to  only  three  people  in  the 
world !  "  "  The  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  kissed  me  on 
the  top  of  my  head — just  there!  "  Dr.  Brightman  was 
admittedly  one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  Oxford,  and 
not  in  liturgical  subjects  alone.  Without  knowing 
enough  to  take  in  all  the  things  I  heard  him  and  others 
discuss,  I  gained  at  this  time  deeper  impressions  of 
the  bearing  on  all  Christian  problems  of  the  history 
and  experience  of  the  Eastern  Churches ;  of  the  im- 
portance of  great  principles  of  historic  ceremonial  as 
distinct  from  the  fads  of  petty  ritualists ;  of  the  inferi- 
ority of  things  modern  to  things  more  ancient  in  Rome; 
and  of  the  incongruity  of  what  Archbishop  Benson 
had  dubbed  "  the  Italian  Mission  "  in  England.  To 
Dr.  Brightman  I  owed  useful  advice  as  to  use  of  time 
on  a  first  visit  to  Rome,  for  which  he  gave  me  several 
letters  of  introduction  including  one  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Nicozia,  and  an  interest  in  mosaics  which  led  later 
to  visits  to  Ravenna  and  Palermo. 

In  Oxford,  I  frequented  many  churches  besides  Keble 


OXFORD  41 

Chapel,  was  often  at  the  Cathedral,  at  St.  Mary's  for 
'Varsity  sermons,  occasionally  at  New  College  and 
Magdalen  for  Evensong,  very  often  at  St.  Barnabas'. 
Every  vacation  I  spent  several  weeks  in  London,  about 
eighteen  months  in  all  during  four  years,  and  came  to 
know  many  London  churches  well.  I  was  most  often 
at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  so  regularly  for  Evensong  one 
winter  at  Westminster  Abbey  that  the  verger  assigned 
me  a  special  stall,  occasionally  at  the  Temple  Church 
and  St.  Alban's,  Holborn,  very  often  at  All  Saints', 
Margaret  Street,  and  St.  John's,  Red  Lion  Square, 
which  I  liked  especially.  I  was  at  St.  Paul's  fre- 
quently on  high  festivals,  a  number  of  times  for  ora- 
torios, at  the  memorial  service  for  the  Duke  of  Clarence 
in  1892,  and  at  a  consecration  of  Bishops  (Colchester 
and  Coventry)  in  1895.  I  was  in  London  on  the  day 
of  the  marriage  of  the  present  King  and  Queen  (Duke 
and  Duchess  of  York),  and  beside  all  the  royalties  saw 
three  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  (Benson,  Temple,  and 
Davidson)  driving  by  in  the  Archbishop's  carriage. 

At  different  times  I  made  excursions  to  all  the  cathe- 
dral-towns in  south  England  except  Chichester  and 
Truro,  and  to  several  in  the  north,  staying  in  all  of 
them  long  enough  not  only  to  see  the  cathedrals  as 
sights,  but  to  feel  them  in  use  and  let  the  historic  asso- 
ciations sink  in.  In  them  and  the  many  old  parish- 
churches  which  I  visited,  continuously  in  use  in  me- 
diaeval and  modern  times,  I  felt  to  the  full  the  sugges- 
tion made  by  these  buildings,  in  whose  history  the  up- 
heavals of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  were 
but  episodes,  of  unbroken  continuity  in  the  English 


42  OXFORD 

Church.  This  haunting  of  cathedrals,  college  chapels, 
and  other  old  churches,  with  all  their  weight  of  asso- 
ciation, gave  an  impression  of  the  majesty  and  strength 
of  the  Church  of  England,  which  formed  the  background 
of  conviction  of  the  mission  of  Anglicanism  for  the 
whole  English-speaking  world.  All  hopes  for  the  future 
took  the  form  of  wishes  for  what  Archbishop  Alex- 
ander referred  to  as 

"  An  Oxford  of  a  more  majestic  growth; 

A  Rome  that  sheds  no  blood  and  makes  no  slave ; 
The  perfect  flower  and  quintessence  of  both, 
More  reverent  science,  faith  by  far  more  brave." 

Knowledge  of  the  English  Church  came  in  pleasantest 
ways,  through  observation  of  many  things  in  the  Church 
at  their  best,  and  through  contact  with  some  who  were 
special  champions  of  Anglican  claims  to  Catholicity. 
The  man  whose  life  and  character  seemed  to  me  the  best 
vindication  of  these  in  recent  years  was  Bishop  King 
of  Lincoln.  I  never  saw  him  but  a  few  times ;  at  Keble 
on  St.  Mark's  Day,  1892,  the  centennial  of  Keble's 
birth,  when  he  came  to  dedicate  the  Liddon  Chapel,  and 
at  St.  Mary's;  but  I  heard  much  of  his  work  in  Cud- 
desdon  and  Oxford  from  those  who  had  been  under  his 
influence,  and  later  of  his  episcopate.  The  modern 
Church  of  England  has  no  greater  glory  than  to  have 
produced  such  a  saint.  He  embodies  the  finest  flower 
and  fruit  of  Anglican  piety,  and  exhibits  clearly  the 
Tractarian  ideal,  "  In  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be 
your  strength." 


OXFORD  43 

My  education,  like  all  Gaul,  is  divided  into  three 
parts,  St.  Paul's,  Oxford,  and  Shepton  Beauchamp. 
Shepton  Beauchamp  is  a  small  village  in  Somerset,  four 
miles  from  Ilminster,  with  a  glimpse  of  Glastonbury 
Tor  twenty  miles  to  the  north.  Its  claim  to  distinc- 
tion is  that  of  a  well-worked  country  parish  in  which 
the  principles  of  the  Oxford  Movement  have  been  con- 
sistently translated  into  action.  It  is  the  home  of  the 
Coles  family  to  whom  its  unique  features  are  due.  The 
Reverend  James  Stratton  Coles,  who  was  "  squarson  " 
— squire  and  parson — had  made  St.  Michael's,  Shepton 
Beauchamp,  in  many  ways  a  model  parish,  when  he  was 
succeeded  as  Rector  by  his  son,  the  Reverend  Vincent 
Stratton  Stuckey  Coles,  who  brought  to  his  work  an 
irresistible  personality  and  experience  gained  in  Oxford, 
Cuddesdon,  and  Wantage  under  Dr.  Butler.  He  built 
the  Rectory  for  himself  and  the  Vicar  of  Barrington, 
a  village  two  miles  off,  and  opened  his  house  to  friends 
among  the  clergy  in  need  of  a  rest  and  among  Oxford 
undergraduates  who  wished  a  place  to  read  during  vaca- 
tions. The  household  at  Shepton  Rectory  often  con- 
sisted of  four  or  five  clergy  and  four  or  five  younger 
men,  living  in  atmosphere  of  regular  devotion,  syste- 
matic hard  work,  and,  at  times  of  recreation,  what  is 
perhaps  best  described  as  intense  cheerfulness !  Life  was 
ordered  with  a  view  to  providing  in  the  most  thorough 
way  for  the  pastoral  care  of  the  people  of  the  village 
and  for  the  prosecution  of  every  one's  special  work 
with  energy  and  good  spirits. 

When  I  went  to  England  in  1891  I  had  letters  to 
Mr.  Stuckey  Coles,  then  Chaplain  of  Pusey  House  o£ 


44  OXFORD 

which  he  was  subsequently  Principal,  and  to  his  suc- 
cessor at  Shepton,  the  Reverend  Arthur  Lethbridge, 
from  Mr.  Parker,  himself  an  "  Old  Sheptonian."  I  first 
saw  the  place  on  Michaelmas,  the  patronal  festival,  when 
after  a  beautiful  choral  Eucharist  in  the  gayly  trimmed 
old  church,  the  whole  village  repaired  to  the  fields  about 
"  the  House  "  for  games,  dinner  served  in  a  great  tent, 
and  dances  on  the  green  lasting  until  late  in  the  evening. 
As  long  as  I  live,  Michaelmas  will  always  bring  memo- 
ries of  Shepton.  During  four  years  I  went  to  Shepton 
several  times  each  year,  twice  spending  the  "  Long 
Vac  "  there,  and  must  have  lived  there  in  all  eighteen  or 
twenty  months. 

There  I  learned  what  clerical  life  and  parochial  work 
should  be.  I  have  never  lived  up  to  the  Shepton  ideal, 
but  have  never  lost  it.  After  seeing  the  ordered  life  of 
the  clergy-house,  the  careful  provision  for  services,  in- 
structions, pastoral  calls,  rescue  work,  and  healthful 
amusements  of  the  small  community,  all  arranged  with 
such  consecrated  common  sense,  it  was  impossible  ever 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  average  clergyman's  life  of  in- 
tense domesticity  interrupted  by  Sunday  services  and 
many  social  calls.  The  standard  was  emphatically 
that  of  priests,  representing  the  influence  of  Cuddes- 
don,  Wantage,  and  the  Society  of  the  Resurrection, 
given  a  unique  flavor  by  the  Rector  and  Vicar,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  frequent  visits  of  Mr.  Coles. 

There  were  four  or  five  Eucharists  a  week;  daily 
Matins  and  Evensong  in  church ;  Terce,  Sext,  and  Com- 
pline in  the  Oratory ;  all  services  simple  and  devotional, 
with  hearty  congregational  singing  of  a  sort  I  have 


OXFORD  45 

never  heard  elsewhere  except  in  the  parish-church  at 
Hawarden  and  in  St.  Martin's,  New  Bedford;  and  all 
the  work  and  recreation  of  the  village  made  to  centre 
about  these,  so  that  the  church  was  made  the  actual 
centre  of  village  life.  Here  I  had  my  first  experiences 
as  server  and  as  assistant  in  various  matters  about 
the  church;  occasionally  I  went  for  similar  purposes 
to  Barrington ;  and  for  two  summers  I  helped  a  neigh- 
boring Vicar  by  reading  Lessons  and  Litany  for  him  in 
his  churches  at  Lopen  and  Kingstone.  The  familiarity 
with  details  which  I  learned  in  the  church  at  Shepton 
and  elsewhere  in  England,  was  of  great  use  to  me  after 
I  was  ordained. 

I  did  much  tramping  about  the  country,  visiting  the 
Somersetshire  churches  with  their  fine  Hamstone 
towers,  occasionally  taking  a  day  or  two  off  from  read- 
ing for  longer  tramps,  on  which  I  explored  the  country 
between  Shepton  and  the  English  Channel  at  Lyme 
Regis,  the  neighborhood  of  Glastonbury  and  Wells, 
south  Devon  about  Exeter,  and  north  Devon  as  far 
west  as  Clovelly  and  Hartland  Head.  With  a  college 
friend  who  made  rubbings  of  monumental  brasses,  I 
went  farther  afield ;  in  Gloucestershire,  doing  Gloucester, 
Tewkesbury,  the  Golden  Valley,  Stroud,  and  Ciren- 
cester ;  at  another  time  the  Thames  Valley  about  Wind- 
sor; at  another  the  Valley  of  the  Wye,  south  from 
Hereford.  On  the  longer  walks  I  was  made  to  think 
much  of  the  place  of  the  English  Church  in  English 
life.  I  think  I  fully  understand  the  feeling  of  English- 
men that  the  Church  in  possession  of  the  ancient  homes 
of  English  Christianity  must  be,  in  spite  of  everything, 


46  OXFORD 

the  Catholic  Church  of  the  land.  On  the  short  tramps 
in  the  afternoon,  I  could  think  over  what  I  had  been 
reading;  and  I  associate  many  lessons  in  Theology  with 
the  fields  and  lanes  about  Shepton. 

When  I  was  ordained  priest  at  St.  Paul's  in  1896 
Mr.  Parker  preached  the  sermon,  as  he  did  twelve 
years  later  at  my  consecration  as  Bishop,  when  he  was 
Bishop-Coadjutor  of  New  Hampshire.  In  conclusion 
he  said: 

"  We  have  had  the  inspiration  of  the  same  life  in  this 
place  as  boys  and  men ;  this  Chapel  is  full  of  tender  associa- 
tions for  both  of  us ;  and  we  have  both  had  before  us  as  an 
example  the  life  of  the  great  Christian  Priest  (Dr.  Coit) 
whose  memorials  are  behind  us  and  before  us,  whose  ex- 
ample and  whose  help  have  really  aided  both  of  us  to 
understand  what  the  ideal  of  the  Priesthood  is:  but  some- 
how my  mind  turns  from  all  these  associations  to  those 
which  we  alone  have  in  common,  and  carry  me  to  that  quiet 
Somersetshire  village,  where  as  theological  students  we 
have  seen  God's  grace  and  God's  power  as  it  shows  itself  in 
consecrated  lives.  To  us  there  came  our  lesson  of  what  our 
work  is  to  be,  and  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  must  be  done. 
We  have  lived  with  men  who  regard  their  office  as  a  mighty 
gift  and  commission  from  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  show  by 
their  lives  and  their  work  the  power  that  comes  from  the 
trusts  committed  to  them  duly  and  fearlessly  exercised; 
we  have  seen  how  all  natural  gifts  may  be  developed  and 
extended  by  the  Divine  commission  which  sanctifies  and 
increases  them:  we  have  seen  administrative  talents,  simple, 
humble  work  in  obscure  places,  rare  and  unusual  mental 
gifts,  eloquence,  great  learning,  scholarship,  enthusiasm, 
quiet,  dogged  persistence — all  blessed  and  made  almost 


OXFORD  47 

new  gifts  by  being  carried  to  Jesus  Christ  and  devoted  to 
His  service.  And  above  all  we  have  been  able  to  see  that 
power  and  developed  gifts  come  from  the  personal  service 
of  Christ  and  personal  union  with  Him,  which  the  official 
commission  of  the  Priesthood  cannot  supply  and  which 
it  must  be  our  constant  effort  to  maintain  and  to  cherish. 

"  The  scenes  amid  which  we  are  to  live  are  likely  to  be 
very  different  from  the  quiet  village  with  its  gray  stone 
cottages  pressing  close  to  the  old  Church  with  its  high 
square  tower  and  crowded  churchyard :  and  we  wish  them  to 
be  different,  for  we  have  our  work  in  our  own  dear  country: 
but  the  spirit  and  the  zeal  and  the  source  of  power  must 
be  the  same,  the  power  of  Christ  working  through  us,  the 
power  of  Christ  developing  all  our  natural  abilities,  the 
power  of  Christ  drawing  us  closer  and  closer  to  Himself  all 
our  life." 

There  could  be  no  better  summary  and  suggestion  of 
the  good  influences  under  which  I  was  privileged  to  live 
during  the  years  of  preparation  for  ministerial  work. 
They  may  be  illustrated  by  extracts  from  two  letters. 

Dr.  Henry  Coit  wrote  me  (April  23,  1892)  when  I 
had  been  admitted  Candidate  for  Holy  Orders : 

"  The  first  step  has  been  taken  towards  that  Blessed  Work 
which  will  make  your  life,  if  you  are  true  and  faithful,  a 
consecrated  one.  No  life  can  be  more  wretched  than  that 
of  a  lukewarm,  worldly  or  self-indulgent  priest,  none  more 
delightful  than  that  of  one  all  the  wishes  and  desires  of 
whose  will  centre  in  what  God  has  commanded." 

Mr.  Coles  wrote  to  me  from  Oxford  (March  8,  1895) 
on  the  eve  of  my  ordination  as  Deacon : 


48  OXFORD 

"  Did  you  ever  think  that  our  Lord  went  from  the  Cross 
'  to  preach  to  the  spirits  that  were  in  prison  '  ?  And  this  is 
a  description  of  all  our  preaching  more  or  less.  The  words 
with  which  He  went  are  summing  up  of  the  past,  and  con- 
secration of  the  future,  '  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
My  spirit.'  What  better  words  can  you  have  in  mind  as  you 
pass  into  the  unknown  life  of  the  ministry  ?  " 


CHAPTER  IV 

MINISTERIAL    WORK 

DURING  the  autumn  of  1894,  while  I  was  living  at  the 
Pusey  House,  I  studied  for  the  first  time  the  Constitu- 
tion and  Canons  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
At  that  time  there  was  a  "  Canon  on  Ritual "  (shortly 
afterward  repealed)  which  forbade  among  other  things 
"  any  act  of  adoration  of  or  toward  the  Elements  in  the 
Holy  Communion,  such  as  bowings,  prostrations,  genu- 
flexions," which  "  symbolized  erroneous  or  doubtful 
Doctrine."  I  was  not  demonstrative  in  my  habits  of 
ritual  and  do  not  recall  that  the  Canon  seemed  to 
forbid  such  slight  reverential  inclinations  as  I  was  then 
accustomed  to  make:  but  as  it  seemed  to  imply  that 
there  was  to  be  no  special  adoration  of  Our  Lord  in  the 
Eucharist,  it  seemed  to  place  the  doctrine  of  the  Real 
Presence  in  the  category  of  "  erroneous  or  doubtful " 
according  to  the  standards  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  If  so,  I  doubted  whether  I  could  be  ordained ; 
at  any  rate  I  felt  bound  to  make  a  declaration  of  my 
belief  on  these  points  to  the  Standing  Committee  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  were  being  asked  to  recommend 
me  for  ordination,  and  to  my  Bishop.  I  have  no  copy 
of  the  declaration.  It  was  brief,  affirming  belief  in  the 
Real  Presence  of  Our  Lord  in  the  Eucharist,  and  in  the 
consequent  duty  of  Eucharistic  Adoration,  intended  to 
conform  with  the  teaching  of  Keble,  and  expressed  in 
terms  approved  by  Mr.  Coles  and  Mr.  Lethbridge. 
49 


50  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

I  wrote  first  to  Dr.  Joseph  Coit,  one  of  the  New 
Hampshire  Examining  Chaplains,  and  had  from  him  a 
very  careful  letter  (Dec.  4,  1894) : 

"  Whether  certain  of  the  framers  of  this  Canon  meant  to 
prohibit  any  '  bowings,  prostrations/  etc.,  no  matter  with 
what  intention  done,  and  to  forbid  every  act  of  devotion 
except  those  prescribed  in  the  rubrics,  is  a  question  with 
which  we  need  not  trouble  our  consciences.  The  facts  to 
determine  are,  What  did  the  Church  intend  to  prohibit  by 
this  Canon?  How  have  fair-minded  and  instructed  men 
understood  and  used  it?  What  has  been  the  actual  inter- 
pretation and  application  of  it  by  the  Bishops  and  Authori- 
ties concerned  with  it?  I  think  that  all  these  questions  can 
be  answered  fairly  and  truthfully  so  as  to  show  that  the 
Canon  is  to  be  taken  as  forbidding  the  teaching  or  sym- 
bolizing of  Transubstantiation  by  ritual  or  devotional  acts. 
I  understand  by  Transubstantiation  the  common  contro- 
versial meaning,  not  the  later  and  more  rational  explana- 
tions of  it  by  certain  Roman  theologians." 

I  had  several  letters  on  the  subject  from  Canon 
Bright,  whom  I  had  consulted. 

Torquay,  January  10,  1895. 

"  Literally  it  goes  beyond  the  terms  of  our  English 
'  Declaration  of  Kneeling.'  At  the  same  time  I  cannot 
imagine  that  the  belief  in  the  Sacramental  Presence  noto- 
riously tenable  (to  say  the  least)  in  the  English  Church,  is 
advisedly  proscribed  in  the  American.  Bishop  Hall  him- 
self, to  name  no  other  prelate,  would  be  a  living  confutation 
of  such  a  supposition.  And  if  that  belief  is  tenable,  so  that 
no  Standing  Committee  (abnormal,  in  one  sense,  as  the 
powers  of  that  body  seem  to  be)  would  be  upheld  in  pre- 
senting a  clergyman  who  avowed  it,  then  reverence  towards 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  51 

the  consecrated  Elements  as  vehicle  of  that  Presence,  is 
natural  and  (so  to  speak)  logical.  One  does  not  know — 
that  is,  I  do  not — whether,  if  a  Bishop  thought  a  certain 
practice  lawful  under  the  Canons,  and  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee thought  it  unlawful,  the  Committee  could  force  the 
Bishop  to  proceed  against  the  clergyman  accused.  If  they 
could,  I  think  the  name  '  Episcopal '  would  be  a  very  in- 
accurate designation  of  the  American  Church:  but  until  I 
know  the  contrary,  I  shall  believe  that  the  Bishop  could  not 
be  so  coerced." 

January  1 1 . 

"  Such  simple  acts  of  reverence  as  you  contemplate  seem 
to  be  the  inevitable  result  of  a  belief  in  the  Sacramental 
Presence,  and  not  at  all  to  be  bound  up  with,  nor  implicitly 
to  suggest  or  promote,  either  the  Roman  scholastic  theory 
as  to  the  Presence  (however  the  statement  of  that  theory 
is  to  be  understood)  or  any  materialistic  conception  such 
as  popular  Romanism  has  been  found  to  encourage." 

January   IS. 

"  My  own  supposition  is  that  the  Canon  in  question  would 
not  be  found  manageable.  And  if  the  American  Church 
has  room  for  Bishop  Hall  and  Bishop  Grafton — not  to 
name  others — it  is  pretty  sure  to  have  room  for  you.  For 
you  are  minded  to  be  loyal  to  the  Anglican  formularies — 
I  am  using  '  Anglican  '  in  a  broad  sense — with  no  disingenu- 
ous Romanizing  side-looks,  of  which,  I  fear,  we  in  England 
have  not  seen  the  last,  and  also  with  no  disposition  to  take 
unwarrantable  liberties  with  the  law  of  the  Church,  such  as 
are  too  often  taken  where  no  Romanizing  drift  exists  from 
mere  aesthetic  or  antiquarian  reasons.  To  press  stringently 
such  a  Canon  in  the  English  Church  would  be  hopeless  for 
the  most  sanguine  Puritan  accuser,  and  I  cannot  imagine 


62  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

that  what  is  thus  notably  out  of  date  with  us  would  be  prac- 
ticable '  across  the  pool '  after  your  ordination." 

Bishop  Miles'  response  after  I  had  made  my  formal 
statement  was  as  follows : 

Paris,  January  28,  1895. 

"  While  I  would  hold  neither  myself  nor  any  Standing 
Committee  competent  to  waive  the  utterances  and  rulings 
of  a  Canon  like  that — any  Canon — I  do  not  suppose  that  it 
was  intended  to  oppose  any  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence 
which  you  have  been  taught.  Sure  I  am  that  this  Church 
has  no  thought  of  ruling  out  of  her  ministry  them  that,  re- 
garding the  Holy  Eucharist,  agree  with  Dr.  Pusey,  Dr. 
Liddon,  Dr.  King  (of  Lincoln),  Dr.  Dix  and  Dr.  DeKoven. 

"  I  suppose  the  Canon  to  wish  to  guard  against  strained 
inferences  in  the  shape  of  ritual  practices  from  the  true 
doctrine  (or,  if  you  please,  the  sound  Theology)  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  And  it  is  a  wholesome  thing  to  hold  one's  self 
herein  in  much  sober  restraint.  It  would  not  be  easy  to 
understand  the  Communion  Office  without  seeing  in  it  clear 
recognition  of  the  true,  real,  objective  Presence  of  our 
Blessed  Lord — a  Presence  none  the  less  Real  if  after  a 
spiritual  and  heavenly  manner,  '  ineffable,'  but,  if  possible, 
all  the  more  Real." 

As  I  had  frankly  expressed  myself  and  the  Bishop 
was  satisfied,  all  scruple  was  removed.  The  incident 
merely  confirmed  my  belief  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Real 
Presence,  with  Eucharistic  Adoration  of  Our  Lord  as  a 
logically  consequent  duty,  was  the  true  doctrine  of  the 
Anglican  Churches,  no  matter  how  many  of  its  members 
failed  to  understand  it. 

The  Bishop  of  New  Hampshire  spent  the  winter  of 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  53 

1894-95  in  France;  and  as  I  had  done  all  work  neces- 
sary for  canonical  examinations,  and  the  time  of  can- 
didacy was  completed,  he  sent  for  me  and  arranged  for 
my  ordination  to  the  Diaconate  in  the  American  Church 
of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Paris.  I  went  into  retreat  for 
three  days  in  a  Paris  hotel  (  !) ,  taking  Newbolt's  Specu- 
lum Sacerdotwm  as  a  sort  of  conductor,  and  was  or- 
dained on  the  Second  Sunday  in  Lent,  March  10,  1895. 
Immediately  after,  the  Bishop  allowed  me  to  go  with 
my  family  to  spend  the  rest  of  Lent  in  Italy.  We  were 
three  days  in  Venice,  ten  days  in  Florence,  three  weeks 
in  Rome,  keeping  a  Roman  Holy  Week  and  Easter. 
My  first  ministerial  act  was  to  assist  Dr.  Nevin  at  the 
American  Church  in  Rome  (St.  Paul's-within-the- 
Walls)  at  the  early  Communion  on  Easter  Day. 

Two  weeks  later,  I  was  in  New  York,  attended  a 
service  in  memory  of  Dr.  Henry  Coit  at  Calvary 
Church,  and  in  the  House  of  Prayer,  Newark,  preached 
my  first  sermon,  a  dreaded  ordeal  which  in  the  event 
was  not  trying,  as  no  one  but  myself  knew  that  I  had 
never  preached  before.  This  sermon,  the  subject  of 
which  was  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  was  altogether 
characteristic  of  my  general  tendencies  and  mode  of 
thought.  It  outlined  all  the  special  things  that  have 
occupied  my  attention  in  subsequent  years. 

The  opening  words  were : 

"  We  say  in  the  Apostles  Creed  that  we  believe  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  and  in  the  Nicene  Creed  that  we 
believe  One  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church,  thereby  ex- 
pressing our  belief,  if  we  use  the  words  in  their  natural 
and  historical  sense,  in  a  visible  society  instituted  by  Christ 


54  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

and  His  Apostles  as  the  covenanted  means  of  bringing  men 
into  union  with  Himself.  We  believe  furthermore  that  this 
society  is  to  be  perpetual,  relying  upon  our  Lord's  promises 
that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it;  that  His 
Spirit  abides  with  it  and  is  in  it;  that  He  will  be  with  it 
always." 

The  discussion  of  the  principle  of  Unity  follows 
Gore;  there  is  detailed  reference  to  the  main  divisions 
of  the  Christian  world;  the  practical  application  is  a 
plea  for  fuller  knowledge  of  Christendom  and  an  avoid- 
ance of  prejudice  with  frank  recognition  of  our  own 
limitations.  The  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  "  unity 
is  in  the  air  "  are  taken  from  Pope  Leo  XIII,  Lord 
Halifax,  and  Dr.  Milligan,  a  Scotch  Presbyterian. 

"  We  may  disapprove  the  methods  of  the  Pope  to  secure 
unity;  but  we  cannot  honestly  withhold  admiration  for  the 
spirit  of  the  present  successor  of  St.  Peter  which  leads  him 
to  seek  it.  The  most  conspicuous  Bishop  in  Christendom  is 
setting  the  rest  of  Christendom  a  good  example." 

"  Differences  there  are ;  we  must  know  what  they  are. 
But  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  truths  that  others  hold,  and 
to  all  the  good  they  practice.  .  .  .  With  regard  to  all 
others,  it  is  plainly  our  duty  to  discover  and  emphasize  all 
we  have  in  common,  and  to  be  able  to  give  in  all  charity 
plain  reasons  for  what  we  hold  to  be  Catholic  truth.  Unity 
is  never  promoted  by  glossing,  suppressing,  or  ignoring, 
truth.  It  is  because  we  are  so  anxious  for  unity  that  we 
are  ready  to  contend  for  the  faith;  because  we  are  longing 
for  peace,  that  we  are  willing  to  fight  for  it.  We  cannot 
however  claim  for  ourselves  an  infallibility  we  deny  to 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  55 

others.  In  the  cause  of  unity  we  are  bound  first  to  discover 
our  own  shortcomings  and  to  remedy  our  own  defects.  We 
must  attend  to  our  own  beams  before  we  operate  on  other 
people's  motes." 

There  is  special  reference  to  our  relation  to  Roman 
Catholicism,  as  well  as  to  Eastern  Orthodoxy,  and 
quotation  from  a  speech  of  Lord  Halifax : 

"  Do  not  let  us  be  afraid  to  speak  plainly  of  the  possi- 
bility, of  the  desirability  of  a  union  with  Rome.  Let  us  say 
boldly  that  we  desire  peace  with  Rome  with  all  our  hearts. 
Public  opinion  will  never  be  influenced  if  we  hold  our 
tongues.  It  is  influenced  by  those  who  have  the  courage  of 
their  opinions." 

For  two  years  after  ordination,  I  was  master  at  St. 
Paul's,  for  the  most  part  teaching  Latin  and  History. 
I  liked  teaching  and  liked  boys ;  but  as  I  had  been  or- 
dained in  the  hope  of  doing  pastoral  work,  I  left  St. 
Paul's  in  1897  to  become  Rector  of  St.  Martin's,  New 
Bedford,  Massachusetts.  St.  Martin's  was  a  parish 
for  mill-people,  many  of  them  from  Lancashire,  estab- 
lished on  good  Church-lines  by  the  Reverend  Alfred 
Evan  Johnson,  who  had  been  Rector  nine  years.  The 
work  was  inspiring,  as  there  were  plenty  of  boys  and 
girls,  and  good  helpers  in  the  persons  of  a  number  of 
ladies  belonging  to  Grace  Church,  New  Bedford.  There 
was  little  money  in  the  parish,  but  plenty  of  souls; 
and  with  a  well-filled  church,  over-crowded  parish- 
house,  good  services,  simple  but  reverent  and  hearty, 
with  much  more  to  do  than  could  ever  be  accomplished, 


56  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

life  at  St.  Martin's  was  well  worth  living.  I  could 
not  have  had  a  parish  that  I  should  have  liked  better, 
if  as  well,  and  never  have  felt  more  in  my  element  than 
during  my  three  years  as  Rector  of  St.  Martin's. 

Before  ordination,  my  secret  ambition  had  been  to 
teach  Church  History:  but  there  were  few  opportuni- 
ties ;  I  was  not  a  graduate  of  an  American  seminary  and 
so  in  line  for  them ;  as  Rector  of  St.  Martin's  I  forgot 
all  about  it ;  and  if  I  could  have  remained  in  the  parish, 
I  should  never  have  wished  to  leave.  However,  after 
three  years  with  no  real  vacation,  I  went  to  pieces ;  and 
friends  saw  before  I  did  that  I  could  not  go  on  at  New 
Bedford  in  the  conditions  under  which  I  had  to  do  my 
work.  To  my  surprise  in  1900  I  was  offered  the  Chair 
of  Church  History  in  Berkeley  Divinity  School,  Middle- 
town,  Connecticut,  in  succession  to  the  Reverend 
William  Allen  Johnson,  and  at  the  same  time  the  Latin 
Professorship  and  Chaplaincy  of  Trinity  College,  Hart- 
ford. Between  these  two  I  could  not  hesitate;  the 
former  was  more  in  my  line:  the  only  difficulty  in  the 
matter  was  in  deciding  to  leave  St.  Martin's. 

I  went  to  Berkeley  in  1900  and  remained  until  1903, 
occupying  the  rooms  in  Jarvis  House  in  which  Bishop 
Williams  had  lived  during  the  first  seventeen  years  of 
the  School's  history,  with  the  best  study  I  have  ever  had 
or  expect  to  have.  Three  tranquil  years  left  nothing 
but  delightful  memories.  I  had  pleasantest  relations 
with  everybody  and  was  especially  devoted  both  to  the 
Dean,  Dr.  John  Binney,  one  of  the  most  chivalrous  and 
courteous  men  I  have  ever  known,  and  to  Dr.  Samuel 
Hart,  whom  I  came  to  know  well,  living  under  the  same 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  57 

roof  for  three  years.  There  were  few  students,  but  they 
were  congenial  companions :  and  it  is  always  a  pleasure 
to  recall  the  time  spent  in  Berkeley  and  Middletown. 

To  be  in  Berkeley  meant  to  be  in  close  touch  with 
the  Seabury  tradition  of  Connecticut.  I  had  always 
appreciated  this,  felt  that  it  represented  the  inner  spirit 
of  the  American  Church,  and,  in  spite  of  much  timidity 
in  its  conservatism,  stood  for  the  structural  principles 
of  Anglican  Catholicity.  I  liked  to  illustrate  these 
from  Bishop  Seabury's  Discourses,  and  took  great  sat- 
isfaction in  the  thought  that  Bishop  Seabury  and 
Bishop  Hobart  had  taught  and  illustrated  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Oxford  Movement  years  before  Keble's 
famous  Assize  Sermon.  Bishop  Seabury's  altar  was  in 
Berkeley  Chapel;  his  chalice  and  paten  were  in  use  on 
special  occasions ;  I  tried  to  get  Dr.  Hart  to  ask  the 
Bishop  to  authorize  the  use  of  his  Communion  Service, 
the  first  American  Rite,  in  Berkeley  once  a  year.  I  also 
developed  a  filial  veneration  for  Bishop  Berkeley  and 
was  impressed  by  the  continuous  witness  to  Catholic 
principles  throughout  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  America.  My  Connecticut  associations 
were  continued  in  New  York  by  a  close  friendship  with 
Dr.  William  Jones  Seabury.  I  shared  his  devotion  to 
the  Seabury  tradition  and  joined  him  in  annual  com- 
memorations of  his  great-grandfather's  consecration.* 

In  1903, 1  was  elected  to  the  St.-Mark-in-the-Bowery 

*  I  was  of  course  interested  in  the  Seabury  documents  in 
his  possession,  and  once  said,  "  If  these  are  stolen,  suspect 
me."  Not  long  after  a  sneak-thief  entered  8  Chelsea  Square 
and,  in  his  rummaging,  opened  the  box  containing  the  Seabury 


58  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

Chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  General  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  New  York,  on  the  retirement  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Richey.*  I  lived  in  New  York  for  over  five 
years,  occupying  No.  5  Chelsea  Square,  the  house  at 
the  end  of  West  Building,  in  those  days  vine-covered 
and  attractive  outside.  It  had  been  built  for  Dr. 
Turner,  first  Professor  of  Biblical  Learning,  in  1836, 
and  always  seemed  to  me  the  best  house  In  the  quad- 
rangle. I  thought  the  Dean  ought  to  take  it  for  the 
Deanery. 

My  History  lectures  followed  lines  laid  out  at  Berke- 
ley, though  all  were  brought  into  better  shape.  Al- 
though further  study  led  me  to  modify  details,  the  gen- 
eral conception  of  the  Church  and  of  the  special  func- 
tion of  Anglicanism  was  that  which  I  had  learned  in 
Oxford.  The  substance  of  them  was  subsequently  com- 
pressed into  Outlines  of  Church  History,  written  for 
the  New  York  Sunday  School  Commission  and  published 
by  the  Young  Churchman  Company  in  1916.  In  under- 
taking the  textbook,  I  did  not  think  much  about  it,  as 
it  only  involved  arrangement  of  the  substance  of  old 
notebooks :  but  when  I  had  finished,  I  recognized  that  it 
represented  more  of  my  thought  on  all  subjects  than 
any  work  I  had  ever  done.  In  it  I  tried  the  experiment, 

papers.  Dr.  Seabury's  daughter-in-law  at  once  thought, 
"Could  it  have  been  Professor  Kinsman?";  but  on  discover- 
ing that  only  a  watch  was  missing,  gave  me  benefit  of  doubt! 
*  My  first  visit  to  the  Seminary  was  made  in  1894.  A  friend 
pointed  out  Dr.  Richey  crossing  the  quadrangle.  I  remember 
thinking,  "  Old  gentleman,  some  day  I  should  like  to  succeed 
to  your  post."  I  never  set  foot  in  Chelsea  Square  again  until 
I  came  to  visit  the  Acting-Dean  (Dr.  Cady)  as  Professor-elect. 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  59 

long  before  my  mind,  of  teaching  History  backwards. 
My  chief  notions  about  the  study  of  Church  History  are 
expressed  in  the  Preface. 

"  The  study  of  History,  like  that  of  Natural  Science, 
cultivates  habits  of  caution  in  estimating  evidence,  the  desire 
for  exact  facts,  and  ultimately  supreme  devotion  to  Truth. 
The  chief  requisite  for  its  successful  pursuit  is  patience. 
Patience  is  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  industry  which 
seeks  to  discover  the  secrets  of  the  elusive  past,  and  of  the 
contentment,  which  makes  the  most  of  partial  demonstra- 
tions, presumptive  proofs  when  there  cannot  be  certainty. 
History,  like  language  and  Nature,  '  half  reveals  and  half 
conceals  '  the  soul  within.  In  historical  as  in  physical 
science,  we  have  to  be  satisfied  with  such  measures  of  truth 
as  lie  within  the  grasp  of  our  present  faculties,  recognizing 
that  at  best  we  can  discern  only  outlines  with  many  dim 
intervals.  Its  study  requires  patience  and  teaches  patience. 
Knowledge  of  the  many  minds  of  many  men,  of  the  diversi- 
ties of  operations  of  one  Spirit,  shows  that  all  men  and  all 
things  cannot  be  made  after  one  pattern,  and  that  we  must 
seek  to  understand  many  whose  ways  of  thinking  and  acting 
are  different  from  our  own.  The  study  of  History  ought 
to  be  a  school  of  justice  and  sympathy.  Church  History 
introduces  us  to  Christian  brothers  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  and  in  all  ages  of  the  world's  development.  It  has  a 
broadening  effect  like  that  of  extensive  travel ;  it  ought  also 
to  have  a  deepening  effect  in  its  kindly  touch  of  the  varieties 
and  vagaries  of  human  nature.  It  represents  a  profound 
study  of  man,  and  of  man  in  relation  to  Almighty  God. 
From  beginning  to  end,  it  is  the  record  of  men  working  not 
by  themselves,  but  in  harmony  with  a  greater  Power,  '  the 
Lord  working  with  them  and  confirming  the  word  with 
signs  following.' 


60  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

Ubi  enim  Ecclesia,  ibi  et  Spiritus  Dei: 

Et  ubi  Spiritus  Dei,  illic  Ecclesia  et  omnis  gratia: 

Spiritus  autem  veritas." 

The  History  work  was  very  congenial,  the  special  in- 
terest coming  from  seminars  and  special  courses  in 
which  thorough  work  was  possible.  I  greatly  liked  my 
pupils  and  have  always  found  my  best  friends  among 
young  men.  "  General "  students  were  no  more  inter- 
esting than  those  at  Berkeley;  but  there  were  more  of 
them.*  The  Churchmanship  of  the  Seminary  was  con- 
genial to  me.  The  Dean,  Dr.  Robbins,  more  consistent 
a  Churchman  than  I  was  in  some  ways,  aimed  at 
creating  an  environment  of  what  I  considered  right 
ideals ;  and  I  was  in  sympathy  with  his  pastoral  policies 
as  I  should  have  been,  I  think,  had  I  stayed  on  under 
his  successor,  Dean  Fosbrooke.  Of  the  Seminary  pro- 
fessors, I  was  most  intimate  with  Dr.  Roper  (Bishop  of 
Ottawa),  an  old  Keble  man,  and  of  the  New  York  clergy 
with  Dr.  William  T.  Manning,  both  as  Vicar  of  St. 
Agnes'  and  Rector  of  Trinity.  Outside  New  York  my 
closest  friend  was  Professor  Rhinelander  of  Cambridge 
(Bishop  of  Pennsylvania).  All  these  strengthened  my 
confidence  in  Anglican  Catholicity,  although,  as  I  have 

*  Acquaintance  with  many  young  men  gives  much  experi- 
ence by  proxy.  They  were  forever  confiding  love-affairs. 
"  Why  don't  you  go,"  I  once  asked,  "  to  some  of  the  married 
Professors  who  know  something  about  it?"  "Because,"  I 
was  told,  "you  have  no  wife  and  won't  tell."  I  hadn't  and 
didn't.  In  consequence,  my  study  was  a  sort  of  Friar 
Laurence's  cell,  frequented  by  many  Romeos  and  occasional 
Juliets.  And  I  learned  much  then,  as  well  as  later  in  diocesan 
experience,  of  the  relations  of  ministry  and  matrimony. 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  61 

always  been  solitary  in  thinking  out  things,  I  was  prob- 
ably not  greatly  influenced  by  anybody.  For  three 
years  I  had  the  pleasure  of  association  with  St.  Faith's 
Training  School  for  Deaconesses.  The  Warden,  Dr. 
Huntington,  asked  me  to  deliver  lectures  on  the  History 
of  Missions ;  and  this  gave  the  privilege  of  having  some 
fine  young  women  for  pupils  and  the  great  benefit  of  the 
influence  and  friendship  of  the  Dean,  Deaconess  Susan 
Trevor  Knapp. 

For  three  years  my  chief  interest  in  New  York  was 
in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine.  I  was  a 
member  of  the  Corporation  and  of  the  Building  Com- 
mittee, with  duties  involving  special  association  with 
the  Reverend  Dr.  W.  R.  Huntington  of  Grace  Church 
and  the  Reverend  Dr.  Grosvenor  of  the  Incarnation, 
afterward  Dean.  My  special  work  was  to  provide  in- 
formation as  to  ecclesiastical  details  for  the  decoration, 
the  first  task  being  to  give  Mr.  Gutzon  Borglum  data 
as  to  likenesses  and  vestments  for  the  statues  in  the  St. 
Columba  Chapel;  the  last,  the  drawing  up  of  a  scheme 
of  subjects  for  the  decoration  of  the  whole  Choir,  which 
was  printed  but  soon  relegated  to  obscurity.  I  secured 
some  stones  from  the  Church  of  St.  John  in  Ephesus, 
one  of  which  was  placed  in  front  of  the  High  Altar. 
The  drafting  of  an  inscription  for  this  was  the  last 
work  done  by  Dr.  Huntington  for  the  Cathedral.  He 
dictated  a  letter  to  me  about  it  the  day  before  his  death. 
The  last  church  service  which  I  attended  in  New  York 
before  going  to  Delaware  was  the  funeral  of  Bishop 
Henry  Potter,  at  whose  burial  in  the  crypt  of  the  Cathe- 
dral I  was  present  as  one  of  the  honorary  pall-bearers. 


62  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

Of  subsequent  visits  to  New  York,  some  of  the  pleas- 
antest  were  those  made  to  the  new  St.  Faith's  by  the 
Cathedral,  when  by  kind  arrangement  of  Dean  Gros- 
venor  I  was  allowed  to  have  the  daily  celebrations  of 
the  Eucharist  in  the  St.  Ambrose  Chapel.  This  enumer- 
ation of  details  cannot  fail  to  show  that  ministerial 
work  gave  me  varied  and  most  delightful  experiences. 

In  1905, 1  spent  the  summer  abroad,  going  to  Oxford 
in  June  to  be  present  at  Keble  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  first  coming  as  Visitor,  and 
had  the  honor  of  meeting  the  Archbishop  (Dr.  David- 
son) for  the  first  time  and  also  the  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester (Dr.  Talbot),  both  of  them  having  recently  re- 
turned from  a  visit  to  America.  Later  in  the  summer 
I  went  for  a  month's  reading  at  St.  Deiniol's  Library, 
Hawarden,  and  for  short  visits  to  Canterbury  and 
Shepton. 

The  main  purpose  of  the  trip,  however,  was  to  visit 
Constantinople  and  Asia  Minor.  I  wished  to  freshen 
up  my  lectures  on  the  conciliar  period  and,  as  I  was 
planning  a  special  course  on  the  Church  in  Ephesus  for 
the  following  year,  to  gain  some  first-hand  knowledge  of 
Ephesian  archaeology.  I  was  fortunate  beyond  ex- 
pectation. The  excavation  of  the  Cathedral  Church  of 
St.  Mary,  in  which  the  third  General  Council  sat,  had 
just  been  completed  by  Austrians ;  and  the  Artemision, 
usually  covered  by  a  frog-pond,  had  been  pumped  out 
by  British  archaeologists  for  the  first  time  since  its  dis- 
covery in  1873.  I  was  able  therefore  to  see  the  Cathe- 
dral as  it  had  been  freshly  uncovered,  and,  although  the 
full  report  of  the  Austrian  excavations  has  not  yet  been 


MINISTERIAL  WORK  63 

published,  I  was  able  through  Professor  Weber,  the 
chief  authority  on  Ephesian  archaeology,  later  to  secure 
photographs  and  plans  for  use  in  seminar,  which  gave 
material  not  otherwise  accessible.  I  spent  the  early 
days  of  July  in  exploring  the  hills  and  ruins  of 
Ephesus.* 

I  saw  rather  carefully  the  ecclesiastical  antiquities  of 
Constantinople  and  Smyrna,  had  brief  glimpses  of 
Athens  and  Corinth,  spent  ten  days  in  Rome,  left  Italy 
by  the  Adriatic  towns,  Ancona,  Rimini,  and  Ravenna, 
joined  a  Seminary  colleague  in  Vienna  and  Innsbruck, 
and  a  Keble  friend  in  Constance,  Cologne,  Aachen,  and 
Bruges.  It  was  all  interesting ;  but  the  fascination  of  a 
first  visit  to  the  east  Mediterranean  countries  so  far  ex- 
ceeded anything  else  that  I  cut  out  a  projected  excur- 
sion into  the  Dolomites  by  way  of  punishment  for  not 
being  more  enthusiastic  over  Rome  and  Ravenna. 

No  trip  ever  interested  me  as  much  as  this  except  one 
taken  with  my  sister  during  the  winter  of  1913-14. 
This  included  visits  to  the  cities  of  the  Rhone  Valley,  to 
Sicily,  and  to  Naples;  but  the  most  of  our  time  was 

•  The  Austrian  excavators  in  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  had 
uncovered  a  number  of  tombs,  scattering  the  bones.  I  collected 
them  and  reinterred  them  in  the  middle  of  the  older  basilica 
with  Anglican  rites!  As  I  read  the  Burial  Office,  the  great 
Amphitheatre,  in  which  the  Ephesians  cried  to  Diana  in  their 
rage  against  St.  Paul,  was  in  sight  across  the  plain,  and  as 
I  looked  at  this  with  the  bones  of  ancient  Ephesian  Christians 
about  me,  it  gave  point  to  "  If  after  the  manner  of  men  I 
have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus,  what  advantageth  me, 
if  the  dead  rise  not?"  I  have  never  since  read  the  lesson  in 
the  Burial  Office  without  a  vision  of  St.  Mary's,  Ephesus,  and 
the  surrounding  hills  as  they  appeared  on  July  4,  1905. 


64  MINISTERIAL  WORK 

spent  in  north  Africa.  From  Epiphany  until  Ash 
Wednesday  we  were  in  Tunis,  whence  I  could  go  any 
day  to  the  site  and  ruins  of  Carthage,  which  I  came 
to  know  well.  I  spent  many  hours  in  the  amphitheatre 
which  saw  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Perpetua  and  her  com- 
panions, and  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Cathedral  in  which 
sat  the  many  Councils  of  Carthage;  and  many  times 
of  quiet  before  the  Tabernacle  in  the  Lady-Chapel  of 
the  Primatiale  of  Carthage,  dedicated  to  St.  Cyprian 
and  St.  Louis,  both  of  whom  died  near  the  spot.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  I  made  side  excursions  to  Kairouan, 
Sousse,  the  borders  of  the  desert  at  Tozeur,  and  into 
St.  Augustine's  country,  stopping  some  time  at  Souk 
Ahras  (Thagaste)  and  at  Hippone.* 

These  references  to  interest  in  Christian  archaeology 
naturally  follow  an  account  of  seminary  work.  They 
also  serve  to  place  me,  in  one  small  respect,  in  the  cate- 
gory with  Dr.  Brightman.  An  enthusiastic  visitor  at 
the  Pusey  House  once  exclaimed,  "  You  ought  to  see  our 
city,  only  ten  years  old,  and  with  fifty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants." Brightman  quietly  remarked,  "  I  had  rather 
see  a  place  that  was  fifty  thousand  years  old  and  had 
only  ten  inhabitants !  " 

•  My  one  opportunity  to  have  an  actual  share  in  archaeo- 
logical exploration  I  had  to  miss.  In  1904  I  was  invited  by 
Sir  William  Ramsay  to  join  a  party  going  for  a  summer's 
work  at  Konieh  (Iconium).  Inability  to  accept  the  invitation 
brought  bitter  disappointment. 


CHAPTER  V 

DELAWARE 

ON  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude's  Day,  1908, 1  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Delaware.  I  knew  less  of  Delaware 
than  of  any  of  the  eastern  States,  had  never  set  foot 
on  its  soil,  and  did  not  know  half  a  dozen  Delawareans. 
I  had  met  Bishop  Coleman  several  times,  but  did  not 
know  him  well.  Although  very  willing  to  go  to  the  new 
work,  I  had  some  misgivings  about  doing  so,  as  I  found 
the  churchpeople  had  quite  mistaken  notions  of  me.  I 
was  reassured  by  Judge  Boyce,  who  said,  "  You're  not  a 
bit  like  what  we  thought;  but  we  think  you'll  do." 
From  the  beginning,  I  greatly  liked  the  warm-hearted 
Delaware  people,  a  liking  that  steadily  increased  as  I 
lived  among  them  for  eleven  years.  My  work  carried 
me  constantly  to  all  parts  of  the  State,  giving  a  wide 
acquaintance  with  people  and  local  affairs,  and  a  place 
in  the  State  life  which  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with 
my  office  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  title  "  of  Dela- 
ware "  had  much  to  do  with  this,  the  State  name  giving 
favorable  introduction  to  many  who  had  no  use  for 
Bishops.  More  than  once  I  was  approached  by  down- 
State  people  who  were  not  Episcopalians  with  the  greet- 
ing, "  This  must  be  our  Bishop."  In  the  Episcopal 
Church,  I  was  in  contact  with  many  of  the  leading  men 
in  the  State,  and  through  my  office  had  friends  in  almost 
every  community :  but  I  had  quite  as  many  friends  out- 
66 


66  DELAWARE 

side  the  Church,  some  of  them  among  the  most  intimate. 
I  cared  for  none  of  my  own  clergy  more  than  for  the 
Presbyterian  minister  in  Middletown ;  and  when  I 
wished  an  especially  good  gossip  about  Delaware  people, 
past  and  present,  I  sought  by  preference  a  Methodist 
Judge  in  Georgetown  and  a  Presbyterian  lady  in  Mil- 
ford.  Yet  I  had  never  any  illusion  that  I  might  be 
classed  with  Delawareans  by  birth.  As  a  Smyrna  man 
once  said  to  me,  "  You  might  be  born  only  half  a  mile 
over  the  Maryland  border,  and  be  brought  into  Dela- 
ware at  the  age  of  fifteen  minutes,  and  stay  here  all 
your  life :  but  every  one  here  would  know  that  you  were 
not  a  true  Blue  Hen's  Chicken."  Nevertheless  it  was 
very  satisfactory  to  be  a  Delawarean  by  position  and 
adoption. 

The  history  of  Delaware,  first  of  the  States,  and  its 
State-life  are  deeply  interesting.  There  is  an  intense 
State-consciousness  which  in  the  nature  of  things  can- 
not exist  elsewhere.  Only  in  Delaware  does  a  compact 
community  of  two  hundred  thousand  people  constitute 
a  sovereign  commonwealth;  and  only  on  a  peninsula, 
settled  for  three  hundred  years  with  no  recent  influx 
of  new  families,  can  every  one  know  of  everybody  else, 
and  be  so  conscious  of  State  and  County  bonds.  Wil- 
mington, in  close  contact  with  Philadelphia  and  Balti- 
more, with  many  people  coming  from  other  places,  re- 
sembles many  cities  of  its  size  with  brisk  business  and 
pleasant  homes :  but  the  rest  of  the  State  has  only  the 
local  flavor.  The  little  peninsular  State  is  unique. 
Until  recently  it  suffered  in  some  ways  from  its  isola- 
tion, but  is  now  quickly  losing  provincial  limitations. 


DELAWARE  67 

There  have  been  important  changes  during  the  past  ten 
years,  and  changes  for  the  better.  Better  roads  and 
automobiles  have  done  much  to  break  up  rural  seclusion, 
bringing  habits  of  travel  to  those  who  a  few  years  ago 
seldom  went  far  from  their  own  farms:  the  standards 
of  education  have  been  raised  through  the  influence  of 
Delaware  College  and  the  wise  activities  and  gifts  of 
those  who  are  improving  the  public  schools:  the  de- 
mands for  war-work  induced  fine  co-operation  between 
all  communities  in  the  State,  enabling  Delaware  to  es- 
tablish an  enviable  record,  in  several  ways  giving  it 
first  place  among  States  of  the  Union.  I  noticed  illus- 
trations of  the  freer  and  more  frequent  intermingling  of 
people  from  all  parts  of  the  State  in  the  congregations 
assembled  in  certain  old  churches  which  were  opened 
only  once  or  twice  a  year.  In  1909  and  1910,  the  con- 
gregations in  Old  Christ  Church,  Broad  Creek,  and 
Prince  George's,  Dagsboro,  were  composed  of  the 
families  who  drove  up  in  buggies  from  farms  lying 
within  a  ten-mile  circle;  after  1914,  most  of  them  came 
in  automobiles,  chiefly  Fords,  many  from  towns,  of 
Maryland  as  well  as  of  Delaware,  forty  and  fifty  miles 
away.  Time  will  doubtless  change  many  things :  but  it 
cannot  deprive  Delaware  of  its  special  character  and 
interest,  as  long  as  the  three  small  Counties,  sending  but 
a  single  Congressman  to  Washington,  yet  have  their 
two  Senators,  and  their  Governor  heading  the  proces- 
sion of  Governors  at  the  inauguration  of  the  President. 
A  perfectly  conscientious  Bishop  of  Delaware  would 
have  a  heart  composed  of  three  absolutely  equal  lobes, 
labelled  respectively  New  Castle,  Kent,  and  Sussex. 


68  DELAWARE 

Not  being  perfectly  conscientious,  I  always  felt,  and 
shamelessly  avowed,  a  special  affection  for  Sussex 
County.  This  was  because  I  recognized  there  all  that 
was  most  characteristically  Delawarean  and  liked  it. 
The  head  of  Delaware  may  be  in  Wilmington,  and  in 
Dover  its  lungs;  but  its  heart — and  stomach — are  in 
good  old  Sussex.  There  is  much  of  Sussex  County  in 
Wilmington.*  Of  the  Sussex  County  towns,  I  was 
always  forced  to  own  a  special  partiality  for  Lewes. 
The  charm  of  a  "  sea-change,"  and  the  interesting  ex- 
periences of  its  pilots,  gave  a  zest  to  life  not  to  be 
found  out  of  sight  of  Cape  Henlopen.  I  had  many 
pleasant  Sussex  homes,  in  Georgetown,  Seaford,  Laurel, 
Millsboro,  Delmar,  and  many  outlying  farms;  but  of 
all  of  them  the  one  I  most  cared  for  was  the  Lewes  Rec- 
tory under  the  shadow  of  St.  Peter's.  As  a  Bishop,  I 
ought  not  to  have  had,  or  at  least  ought  not  to  have 
avowed,  special  local  attachments ;  but  I  think  they 
have  served  to  make  me  something  more  of  a  Dela- 
warean. 

Bishopstead  in  Wilmington  is  a  charming  old  house, 
built  in  1742,  and  since  1842  the  home  of  the  Bishops 
of  Delaware.  Its  special  feature  is  the  beautiful  pri- 
vate Chapel  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  I  could  not  have 
had  an  official  residence  more  to  my  liking,  and  never 
ceased  to  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Francis  Gurney  du  Pont, 

•The  ideal  Delawarean  is  born  in  Sussex  County,  has 
Rodney  and  Burton  grandmothers  so  that  he  is  related  to 
everybody,  marries  a  Ridgeley  of  Dover  for  his  first  wife  and 
a  Corbit  of  Odessa  for  his  second,  lives  and  practices  law  in 
Wilmington,  eventually  becoming  Governor  of  Delaware  or 
a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court. 


DELAWARE  69 

who  had  given  the  house  and  chapel  to  the  Diocese. 
The  grounds  sloping  toward  the  Brandywine  are  at- 
tractive, affording  space  for  gatherings  of  people  more 
than  the  house  would  hold;  and  the  place  was  quickly 
filled  for  me  with  many  reminders  of  the  kindness  of 
the  churchpeople  of  Wilmington.  Living  at  Wilming- 
ton made  it  easy  to  make  frequent  visits  to  the  mother- 
town  of  New  Castle  and  to  the  Colleges  in  Newark.  Of 
all  my  associations  I  cared  for  none  more  than  that  with 
Delaware  College.  The  two  Presidents  whom  I  knew, 
Dr.  Harter  and  Dr.  Mitchell,  I  greatly  liked  and  ad- 
mired: I  knew  many  of  the  College  boys  and  girls  in 
their  homes,  and  kept  track  of  them  after  they  came  to 
College:  I  was  frequently  at  the  fraternity  houses,  feel- 
ing especially  at  home  in  the  Kappa  Alpha.  After  the 
founding  of  the  Women's  College,  Dean  Robinson  made 
me  welcome  as  a  frequent  visitor:  and  of  all  I  have  lost 
in  leaving  Delaware,  I  regret  nothing  more  than  the 
breaking  of  contact  with  the  Colleges  at  Newark  and 
the  Delaware  students. 

I  always  liked  my  work  as  chorepiscopus.  Bishop 
Lawrence  once  said  in  an  address  to  the  Massachusetts 
Convention,  "  Remember  that  the  weakest  mission  needs 
the  Bishop  more  than  the  strongest  parish."  I  took 
this  as  a  motto  for  diocesan  work  and  deserved  some- 
thing of  a  frequent  criticism  that  I  was  always  in  the 
country,  seldom  in  the  city.  It  seemed  to  me  that  in 
the  country  I  was  more  needed ;  at  any  rate,  I  was  given 
more  opportunities  for  work.  It  was  my  ambition  to 
know  every  road  in  Delaware;  and  I  did  know  most  of 
them.  I  liked  keeping  appointments  at  places  remote 


70  DELAWARE 

from  the  railroad,  like  St.  George's,  Indian  River,  and 
St.  Mark's,  Little  Creek.  Among  my  most  helpful  as- 
sistants were  the  men  and  boys  who  drove  me  about  the 
country,  and  a  "  band  "of  five  boys  from  Lewes  under 
direction  of  Dr.  Robinson,  who  provided  music  for  spe- 
cial services  in  isolated  churches.  There  were  many 
delightful  surprises  and  tests  of  resourcefulness  in  the 
demands  of  the  country  work.  Custom  could  never 
stale  its  infinite  variety. 

It  was  always  easy  for  me  in  visiting  different 
churches  to  adapt  myself  to  the  customs  of  the  place. 
As  seminary  professor  for  eight  years,  I  had  been  iden- 
tified with  no  one  parish,  and,  as  special  preacher,  had 
been  in  touch  with  many  churches  in  the  dioceses  of 
Connecticut,  New  York,  Long  Island,  Newark,  and  New 
Jersey.  I  was  familiar  with  different  sorts  of  congre- 
gations and  services,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  fitting  in 
everywhere.  This  was  a  distinct  advantage  in  assum- 
ing charge  of  a  diocese.  I  had  no  feeling  of  strange- 
ness in  the  different  churches  even  at  the  outset.  I 
liked  a  Bishop's  pastoral  work,  loved  Confirmations  and 
Institutions  of  Rectors,  liked  preaching  if  there  was 
any  sign  of  sympathetic  atmosphere,  and  especially  oc- 
casional share  in  parochial  work.  One  of  the  chief 
privileges  of  the  small  diocese  was  that  there  could 
be  much  of  this.  If  the  clergy  wished,  I  could  get  to 
each  church  of  the  diocose  at  least  three  times  a  year, 
twice  on  Sundays :  the  Bishop  was  the  only  general  mis- 
sionary, and  in  parochial  vacancies  often  the  one  who 
could  most  easily  assume  temporary  charge.  I  usually 
had  several  vacant  parishes  and  missions  to  care  for, 


DELAWARE  71 

so  that  there  was  never  danger  of  becoming  a  mere 
"  confirming-machine."  There  were  certain  churches  in 
which  I  was  most  happily  at  home,  especially  Old 
Swedes',  Wilmington;  St.  Peter's,  Lewes;  and  Christ 
Church,  Dover. 

Under  Archdeacon  Thompson,  the  Dover  Church, 
dating  from  1730,  had  been  "  restored  "  as  a  beautiful 
example  of  colonial  architecture;  the  churchyard, 
through  gifts  of  Mrs.  Eugene  du  Pont,  had  been  put  in 
perfect  order;  the  services  were  beautiful  and  reverent, 
and,  best  of  all,  valued  and  used  by  a  devout  congrega- 
tion. Dover  was  the  most  convenient  point  from  which 
to  travel  about  the  diocese:  Dover  Rectory  was  one  of 
my  most  delightful  homes :  hence  I  was  always  thankful 
when  by  visits  to  Dover  I  could  combine  official  duty 
with  personal  pleasure.  If  I  had  died  Bishop  of  Dela- 
ware, I  had  wished  to  be  buried  in  the  Dover  church- 
yard. 

Of  all  the  ministerial  work  I  have  ever  had  to  do,  I 
have  cared  most  for  Quiet  Days,  of  which  I  have  con- 
ducted many,  and  for  Retreats,  of  which  I  never  con- 
ducted but  four.  Two  of  these  last  stand  out  in  my 
memory  as  the  brightest  spots  in  a  ministry  of  twenty- 
four  years.  The  first  was  for  the  undergraduates  of 
the  General  Seminary  before  Lent  in  1906,  the  second 
for  priests  at  Holy  Cross  Monastery  in  the  September 
Embertide  of  1916.*  In  Delaware  I  could  do  some 

*  Of  all  places  I  know  in  the  country,  the  one  which  has 
drawn  me  most  is  the  monastery  of  the  Holy  Cross  Fathers. 
As  a  home  of  devotion  and  good  works,  bringing  association 
with  the  strongest  of  consecrated  lives,  I  have  known  noth- 
ing like  it:  and  when  once  the  Father  Superior  offered  me 


72  DELAWARE 

work  of  this  sort  and  always  valued  the  opportunities. 
There  were  annual  Quiet  Days  for  the  Woman's  Auxil- 
iary, occasional  Quiet  Days  for  Clergy,  and  sometimes 
little  parochial  missions.  I  look  back  with  special  grati- 
tude to  missions  in  St.  Luke's,  Seaford,  and  St.  Anne's, 
Middletown,  where  the  congregations  shared  my  liking 
for  evangelistic  hymns. 

Among  the  chief  privileges  of  a  Bishop  are  his 
glimpses  into  many  homes.  I  had  many  of  these,  and 
was  allowed  not  only  to  see  homes  but  to  appropriate 
them.  Even  in  Wilmington  I  formed  habits  of  a  cuckoo 
in  taking  possession  of  other  people's  nests,  especially 
in  one  house  just  across  the  Brandy  wine  from  Bishop- 
stead.  Of  all  the  homes  I  have  ever  seen  or  known,  I 
found  the  best  in  Delaware  rectories.  I  always  main- 
tained that,  if  General  Convention  would  provide  for  a 
display  of  Church  produce,  I  could  at  any  time  win 
prizes  for  the  Diocese  of  Delaware  by  an  exhibit  of 
wives  of  the  clergy !  I  could  have  made  a  good  show 
too  with  children.  Not  only  were  the  families  of  most 
of  the  Delaware  clergy  good  in  themselves  and  in  their 
domestic  relations;  but,  in  giving  examples  of  well- 
ordered  households,  they  were  helps  in  parochial  work. 
Clergy  were  usefully  assisted  by  the  social  tactfulness 
of  their  wives ;  and  their  preaching  was  the  more  effec- 
tive if  they  possessed  good-tempered,  obedient  children. 
It  was  not  mere  personal  and  diocesan  pride  which  made 
me  feel  that  the  inhabitants  of  Delaware  rectories  whom 
I  knew,  might  be  ranged  with  the  best. 

a  cell  of  my  own,  I  should  have  liked  nothing  better  than  to 
be  able  to  accept  it. 


DELAWARE  73 

In  my  diocesan  as  in  earlier  work,  my  experience  was 
varied,  congenial,  and  brought  pleasantest  associations. 
In  looking  back,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  Episcopal 
Church  gave  me  everything  I  could  most  wish.  I  had 
a  special  ambition  to  teach  Church  History,  and  two 
opportunities  were  given  me:  of  all  the  parishes  I  have 
ever  known,  the  one  I  should  pick  for  myself  would  be 
St.  Martin's,  New  Bedford:  in  recent  years  the  only 
post  I  could  possibly  wish  was  that  of  Bishop  of  Dela- 
ware. Delaware  people,  like  all  others,  have  their  limi- 
tations, diocesan  work  in  Delaware,  like  all  others,  its 
drawbacks :  but  these  never  disturbed  me.  I  had  plenty 
of  difficulties  and  disappointments,  but  knew  of  no 
other  Bishop  who  had  so  few.  I  liked  being  a  Bishop 
chiefly  for  the  association  with  the  House  of  Bishops; 
but  the  only  diocese  I  could  conceive  of  wishing  was 
Delaware.  The  surroundings  and  conditions  of  my 
work  satisfied  me;  so  far  as  they  were  concerned,  I 
ought  to  have  been,  and  was,  quite  happy.  That  was 
all  on  the  surface.  Below  the  surface,  during  almost 
my  whole  episcopate  I  was  increasingly  troubled,  pass- 
ing through  successive  stages  of  disappointment,  dis- 
illusion, doubt,  and  disbelief,  owing  to  the  waning  of 
faith  in  the  church  system  which  I  was  set  in  Delaware 
to  represent :  but  the  reasons  for  this  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  my  special  field  of  work,  and  hence  even 
this  brief  allusion  to  them  is  out  of  place  in  this  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ANGIJCANISM 

THE  day  of  my  consecration  as  Bishop  sealed  my 
doom  as  an  Anglican.  While  it  was  possible  to  main- 
tain a  purely  theoretical  view  of  the  Anglican  position, 
it  was  possible  for  me  to  believe  in  the  essential  catholic- 
ity of  its  inner  spirit,  of  its  tendencies,  and  of  its  ulti- 
mate achievements.  As  Seminary  professor  or  rector 
of  a  "  Catholic  parish,"  I  should  probably  never  have 
had  misgivings,  much  less  doubts.  Most  Anglicans  as- 
sume that  the  special  atmosphere  about  them  represents 
the  breath  of  the  Church's  truest  life;  and  this  is  espe- 
cially true  of  Catholic-minded  Anglicans.  They  are 
themselves  Catholics,  and  their  special  task  is  "  to 
Catholicize  the  Church."  This  feeling  I  shared  until 
as  Bishop  I  felt  the  necessity  of  a  Church  to  Catholicize 
me!  The  theories  did  not  stand  the  test  of  a  bishop's 
varied  experience  of  the  system's  actual  workings,  his 
necessary  contact  with  and  share  in  all  phases  of  the 
Church's  life.  Eleven  years  in  the  episcopate  convinced 
me  against  my  will  and  in  spite  of  knowledge  that  other 
like-minded  Bishops  did  not  agree  with  me,  that  the 
work  with  which  I  was  identified  was  merely  the  propa- 
gation of  a  form  of  Protestantism ;  that  belief  in  it  as 
Liberal  Catholicism  was  but  an  amiable  delusion. 
Abandonment  of  work  did  not  signify  in  my  case  re- 
pudiation of  Protestant  principles,  for  these  I  had 
74 


ANGLICANISM  75 

never  held;  but  the  loss  of  belief  in  the  Catholic  inter- 
pretation of  the  Anglican  position.  It  was  quite  just 
that  the  defection  should  be  most  resented  by  members 
of  the  Anglo-Catholic  party. 

I  never  have  been,  and  never  could  be,  Protestant  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term;  yet  this  does  not  mean 
that  I  cannot  appreciate  the  high  aims  of  Protestants 
and  their  good  works.  While  I  no  longer  believe,  as  I 
once  did,  that  "  on  the  whole  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century  was  beneficial,"  and  that 
"  taken  as  a  whole,  Protestantism  has  been  the  strong- 
est religious  influence  active  during  the  past  three  hun- 
dred years,"  from  the  statements  of  sympathy  with 
Protestantism's  positive  aims  which  I  have  made  in  the 
past  I  retract  nothing.*  To  my  criticisms  of,  and 

•Cf.  Kinsman:  Principles  of  Anglicanism,  pp.  127-135; 
Kinsman:  Catholic  and  Protestant,  pp.  82-85;  Issues  before 
the  Church,  pp.  27-29.  My  attitude  in  the  present  as  in  the 
past  would  be  indicated  by  the  following  statement  made  in 
1915. 

"  All  my  life  I  have  had  to  do  with  Presbyterians.  I  have 
never  known  any  but  good  ones;  and  my  Presbyterian  friends 
include  the  best  people  I  have  known  anywhere.  From  per- 
sonal knowledge  I  know  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  working  in 
the  Presbyterian  Communion;  and  I  have  the  highest  respect 
for  what  Presbyterians  have  contributed,  and  are  likely  to 
contribute,  to  the  development  of  the  country.  In  some  com- 
munities I  know,  I  consider  that  they  represent  the  strongest 
element  for  good,  a  stronger  element  than  Episcopalians. 
There  are  no  people  with  whom  I  should  more  wish  to  be  in 
sympathetic  co-operation,  none  with  whom  I  should  feel  less 
justified  in  making  arrogant  assumption  of  superiority.  Every 
personal  feeling  makes  me  wish  to  work  with  Presbyterians. 
I  acknowledge  that  their  religious  system  is  good,  because  I 
know  its  fruits  and  its  character. 


76  ANGLICANISM 

reasons  for  disbelief  in,  Protestantism,  made  in  past 
years,  I  should  now  add  nothing.  If,  at  the  present 
time,  it  were  necessary  to  give  these,  I  should  merely 
quote  statements  which  I  have  made  in  print  during  the 
past  seven  years.* 


"Yet  that  does  not  lead  me  to  think  it  the  best,  nor  to 
make  me  feel  that  sympathy  and  charity  compel  me  to  sacrifice 
my  own  convictions  to  the  supposed  wishes  of  Presbyterian 
friends  any  more  than  I  expect  them  to  sacrifice  their  convic- 
tions to  mine.  (I  have  never  found  that  straightforward 
avowal  of  convictions  prevented  friendly  intercourse  with 
those  who  had  different,  but  equally  strong,  convictions  of 
their  own.  Quite  the  contrary.)  The  older  I  grow,  the 
less  I  can  believe  that  Calvinistic  theology  adequately  pre- 
sents the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  or  that  systems 
based  upon  it  are  best  fitted  to  preserve  the  finest  qualities 
of  Christian  life.  The  more  I  know  of  Calvinistic  influence, 
the  more  I  am  convinced  that,  as  compared  with  original  Chris- 
tianity, it  represents  a  down-grade.  It  has  shown  an  inevitable 
trend  toward  Unitarianism,  which  I  understand  and  respect, 
though  unable  to  accept  its  negations,  and  can  only  regard 
as  '  a  feather-bed  to  catch  a  falling  Christian.'  Hence,  the 
more  I  value  many  positive  products  of  Presbyterian  influence, 
the  more  for  the  sake  of  their  preservation  would  I  wish  to 
see  them  on  what  I  believe  a  more  secure  basis.  When  I  have 
to  choose  between  the  fundamental  principles  and  assumptions 
of  the  ancient  Catholic  Church  and  those  of  my  Presbyterian 
friends — or  rather  the  system  from  which  they  are  named — I 
choose  the  ancient  principles,  not  that  theories  of  ministry  and 
sacraments  are  things  of  chief  importance,  but  because  they 
apply  and  protect  the  central  doctrines  of  faith  which  we  all 
alike  profess."  Issues  before  the  Church,  pp.  27  f . 

*  The  fullest  statement  would  be  found  in  Principles  of 
Anglicanism,  pp.  135-164,  in  a  paper  on  The  Achievements  and 
Failures  of  Protestantism.  Cf.  Catholic  and  Protestant,  pp. 
51-56.  The  gist  of  these  passages  would  be  given  in  such 
sentences  as  the  following: 


ANGLICANISM  77 

Like  many  others  I  interpreted  "  Protestant  Epis- 
copal "  as  equivalent  to  "  Non-Roman  Catholic."  When 
I  felt  forced  to  admit  that  "  Protestant  "  applied  to 
Episcopalians  meant  essentially  the  same  as  when  ap- 
plied to  other  religious  bodies,  I  gave  up.  I  think  now 
that  Episcopalians  who  know  themselves  to  be  Protes- 
tants, are  the  ones  who  rightly  interpret  their  position. 
It  might  seem  strange  that  any  Episcopalians  should 
consider  themselves  Catholics ;  but  this  is  a  possible 
alternative  for  those  who  face  an  inevitable  dilemma. 
"  Protestant  Episcopal  "  represents  a  contradiction  in 
terms.  Protestantism  overthrew  priesthood  and  espe- 
cially the  chief-priesthood,  the  episcopate ;  no  real  Prot- 
estant believes  in  priests  or  bishops.  Episcopacy,  that 
is  the  hierarchical  system  of  the  ancient  Catholic 
Church,  asserts  principles  which  Protestantism  denies. 

"  It  is  not  long  since  it  was  a  common  thing  to  hear  people 
glorify  the  period  of  the  Reformation  as  a  golden  age  in  the 
history  of  religion  and  political  freedom.  No  one  familiar 
with  the  history  can  do  that.  It  was  a  troubled  time  with 
many  ugly  features,  a  time  of  conflict  only  to  be  defended  as 
inevitable  in  an  age  of  transition,  a  time  of  tearing  down  for 
the  sake  of  building  up.  The  wars  it  occasioned  are  only  the 
most  striking  examples  of  disasters  which  caused  the  over- 
throw of  freedom,  education,  and  righteousness,  all  of  them 
ideals  for  which  the  Reformation  is  popularly  supposed  to 
stand."  Outlines  of  Church  History,  p.  102. 

"  Any  one  who  takes  broad  views  of  human  life  and  history 
can  not  fail  to  see,  in  reviewing  the  whole  course  of  Protestant 
development,  that,  with  positive  strength  which  the  world 
could  not  afford  to  lose,  there  have  been  elements  of  weakness, 
suppressions  and  distortions  of  truth,  of  which  the  world 
can  not  too  soon  get  rid."  Catholic  and  Protestant,  p.  56. 

"  The  basis  of  Protestantism  was,  even  in  the  beginning,  a 


78  ANGLICANISM 

Hence  a  real  believer  in  Episcopacy  is  not,  and  never 
can  be,  a  thoroughgoing  Protestant.  Protestant  Epis- 
copalians must  choose  between  their  adjective  and  their 
noun;  and  whichever  choice  they  make  involves  mental 
reservations  as  to  the  other  half  of  their  official  title. 
I  was  one  of  those  who  stuck  to  the  noun  and  let  the 
adjective  shift  for  itself.  I  now  think  that,  however 
much  the  noun  expresses  Anglican  theory,  it  is  the  ad- 
jective which  describes  the  working  facts. 

My  beliefs  about  Anglicanism,  the  gist  of  my  teach- 
ing about  it  in  Seminary  days,  have  been  in  various 
forms  put  in  print.  These  assumed  the  substantial  ex- 
cellence of  the  guiding  principles  of  the  English  Refor- 
mation. (I  have  never  been  in  sympathy  with  those 
who  believe  that  modern  Episcopalianism  is  destined  to 
perpetuate  the  unreformed  Church  of  England;  at  least, 
though  in  sympathy  with  their  aspirations,  not  with  their 
applications  of  principle  to  existing  institutions  and 
history.)  I  believed  enthusiastically  in  "  the  Anglican 
type  of  Christianity,  a  combination  of  conservatism  and 
liberalism,  determined  to  stand  '  on  the  ancient  ways,' 
yet  ever  ready  to  enter  new  paths  of  usefulness."  * 

protest  not  only  against  ecclesiastical  abuses,  but  also  a  pro- 
test against  authority  as  such  and  a  protest  against  the  super- 
natural. The  gradual  developments  of  Protestant  history  have 
made  this  increasingly  evident.  God  is  a  supernatural  au- 
thority; and  in  the  end  God  has  to  go.  Hence  it  is  that  one 
of  the  bishops  could  say  recently,  '  The  goal  of  Protestantism 
is  atheism.'  Not  that  Protestants  set  out  for  this  goal,  or  that 
many  have  reached  it;  but  that  being  rooted  and  centred  in 
self,  Protestantism  inaugurates  a  tendency  which  ultimately 
excludes  God."  Issues  before  the  Church. 
•  Outlines  of  Church  History,  p.  69. 


ANGLICANISM  79 

The  substance  of  my  Seminary  lectures  was  summarized 
in  a  course  of  Reinecker  Lectures  delivered  at  the  Vir- 
ginia Theological  Seminary  in  Alexandria  in  1909  and 
published  as  Principles  of  Anglicanism  in  1910.  The 
following  are  characteristic  statements. 

"  It  is  possible  so  to  define  the  Anglican  position  of  via 
media  as  to  make  it  seem  a  timid  avoidance  of  error,  stand- 
ing for  nothing  definite  and  positive,  a  shrinking  from  pos- 
sible danger  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  which  leaves  little 
solid  ground  to  stand  on.  It  is  better  understood  as  de- 
liberate occupancy  of  a  central  position,  in  itself  safe  and 
stable,  and  offering  peculiar  advantages  of  reconciling  and 
combining  the  positive  principles  of  those  who  flank  its 
position  on  both  sides.  The  characteristic  answer  of  Angli- 
can compromise  when  confronted  by  a  question  of  dilemma, 
'  Which  will  you  choose,  this  side  or  that  side  ?  '  is  '  Both ! ' 
.  .  .  The  clue  to  the  meaning  of  Anglicanism  is  to  be 
found  in  the  theory  not  that  it  avoids  twofold  error,  but 
that  it  seeks  combination  of  twofold  truth."  * 

"  If  English  Church  history  has  one  special  lesson,  and 
if  there  be  one  lesson  which  the  Anglican  Church  has  had 
best  opportunities  to  learn,  and  ought  to  be  in  a  position  to 
teach,  it  is  the  duty  of  balance  by  combination.  The  charac- 
teristic Anglican  virtue  is,  or  ought  to  be,  balance;  its  con- 
tribution to  religious  development  ought  to  be  the  safeguard- 
ing of  the  whole  of  truth  by  the  combination  of  opposing  or 
partial  truths,  whose  harmony  is  not  at  first  apparent."  j- 

"  It  is  perfectly  conceivable  that  Anglicanism  should  cease 

*  Anglicanism,  p.  11. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  88. 


80  ANGLICANISM 

to  exist.  From  present  indications  it  appears  that  a  num- 
ber of  the  religious  systems  and  ecclesiastical  institutions, 
which  originated  in  the  sixteenth  century,  are  passing  out 
of  existence.  .  .  .  More  and  more  does  it  seem  likely 
that  the  alignment  in  future  is  to  place  in  one  camp  the 
maintainers  of  the  historic  faith  of  the  New  Testament  over 
against  various  forms  of  Unitarianism,  which  are  likely 
more  and  more  explicitly  to  abandon  the  New  Testament, 
recognizing  that  the  miraculous  element  is  everywhere 
interwoven  in  its  tissue.  If  this  be  true,  the  future  of 
Christianity  will  lie  with  that  Communion  which  can  best 
vindicate  its  claim  to  represent  the  religion  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  is,  Christianity  according  to  the  apostolic 
norm.  Anglicanism  is  one  of  the  forms  of  Christianity 
which  claim  to  perpetuate  this.  If  its  claim  be  not  valid,  it 
had  best  make  way  for  a  Christianity  which  can  better 
vindicate  the  claim,  and  the  sooner  the  better.  But  so  long 
as  it  does  exist,  and  so  long  as  it  can  give  any  reasonable 
justification  of  its  existence,  it  must  bear  consistent  witness 
to  the  Scriptural  principles  of  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Church.  Its  characteristic  contribution  to  Christian  de- 
velopment, however  that  contribution  be  combined  with 
others,  must  be  the  instinct  of  giving  the  ancient  spirit  a 
truly  modern  expression.  This  is  the  ideal  which  challenges 
us  to  a  stricter  and  sterner  effort  than  we  have  hitherto 
shown  to  give  it  approximate  realization."  * 

It  was  with  this  optimistic  view  of  the  principles  of 
the  Communion  in  which  I  had  been  consecrated  a 
"  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  God  "  that  I  went  to  Dela- 
ware in  1908;  but  I  soon  discovered  that  there  were 
great  discrepancies  between  theories  and  facts.  I  re- 

*  Anglicanism,  p.  85, 


ANGLICANISM  81 

member  saying  after  the  publication  of  Principles  of 
Anglicanism,  "  Very  few  of  our  people  know  what  these 
are ;  and  few  of  those  who  do  believe  them ! "  Yet  I 
believed  them  myself,  and  never  thought  of  being  dis- 
couraged while  I  could  do  so.  My  notion  of  a  Bishop 
was  that  one  of  his  chief  duties  was  to  keep  cheerful,  to 
be  on  the  lookout  for  good  work,  to  approve  and  en- 
courage those  who  were  doing  it,  never  to  find  fault 
when  it  could  be  avoided,  and  always  to  lay  stress  on 
the  bright  side  of  things.  In  my  previous  work  I  had 
for  the  most  part  been  a  cheerful  sort  of  person,  and 
for  a  time  I  was  able  to  keep  this  up  in  Delaware.  I 
liked  my  surroundings,  made  the  most  of  any  signs  of 
progress,  did  not  mind  difficulties  so  long  as  there 
seemed  to  be  movement  in  a  right  direction,  and  was 
thankful  to  have  my  place  and  post  so  long  as  I  was 
confident  of  the  essential  goodness  of  the  special  work 
I  was  set  to  do.  But  the  optimism  was  oozing  rapidly 
by  the  end  of  my  third  year. 

This  was  not  due  to  any  specially  trying  experiences 
or  difficult  personal  relations.  My  tasks  were  compara- 
tively easy ;  on  the  whole,  according  to  accepted  stand- 
ards, my  efforts  were  successful;  looking  about  the 
Church,  there  was  no  other  Bishop  with  whom  I  should 
have  been  willing  to  change  places.  So  far  as  I  was 
personally  concerned,  things  went  well  enough;  but  I 
came  less  and  less  to  be  satisfied  with  the  actual  accom- 
plishments of  the  Church  in  teaching  and  training. 

I  do  not  think  that  this  was  due  to  narrowly  partisan 
views.  I  had  for  long  laid  stress  on  a  saying  of  Fred- 
erick Denison  Maurice  to  the  effect,  "  Trust  a  man  in 


82  ANGLICANISM 

what  he  affirms ;  distrust  him  in  what  he  denies."  I 
wished  to  think  that,  taken  on  the  positive  side,  every  one 
was  in  the  right,  that  the  thing  to  do  was  to  find  each 
man's  positive  side,  and  ignore  the  others.  As  Bishop, 
I  wished  to  understand  and  back  up  every  one  in  his 
special  positive  truth  and  special  form  of  positive  use- 
fulness. I  applied  this  principle  to  parties  in  the 
Church  and  different  religious  bodies.  I  thought,  and 
still  think,  that  all  have  hold  of  special  and  partial 
truths,  and  that  the  way  to  understand  and  deal  with 
each  is  to  recognize  the  truth  at  the  basis  of  their 
thought  and  practice.  I  remembered  a  bit  of  advice  of 
Bishop  Creighton's  to  the  effect  that  the  best  way  to 
meet  and  dispose  of  an  objection  is  to  sympathize  with 
it.  Sympathy  is  the  most  effective  form  of  antagonism. 
It  was  a  special  hobby  of  mine  that  the  three  schools 
of  thought  in  the  Church  simply  divided  the  Creed  be- 
tween them,  and  that  each  needed  the  others  to  supple- 
ment and  develop  its  own  special  position. 

"  The  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  foundation  of  all  theology, 
proclaiming  One  Father  with  the  aim  of  realizing  one 
brotherhood  of  all  mankind,  is  the  basis  of  all  Broad  Church 
preaching.  The  heart  of  the  Creed,  belief  in  the  Divine 
Son,  Redeemer  of  all  individual  souls,  is  the  basis  of  the 
Evangelical  appeal  for  conversion  and  missionary  venture. 
The  High  Church  emphasis  on  Church  and  Sacraments  is 
nothing  but  practical  belief  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  God  in 
present  action,  drawing  men  to  Our  Lord,  and  through  Him 
to  the  Father.  No  matter  at  which  point  we  first  touch  the 
Creed,  when  it  is  learned  entire,  the  full  belief  in  God 
must  come  and  be  applied.  One-sided  emphasis  is  often 


ANGLICANISM  83 

necessary  owing  to  human  tendencies  to  be  content  with 
half-truths ;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to  rest  content  with  these. 
Recent  Anglican  history  teaches  the  necessity  of  correlating 
separated  truths,  of  keeping  '  the  proportion  of  faith,'  of 
cultivating  an  all-round  Churchmanship  which  has  all  the 
dimensions  at  once.  The  history  of  Church  parties  is  that 
of  disproportion;  the  history  of  the  Church  as  a  whole 
teaches  symmetry — and  the  justice  of  patience."  * 

I  was  a  High  Churchman,  but  I  wanted  to  be  more 
than  that,  being  convinced  that  "  a  really  good  Church- 
man will  be  High,  Low,  and  Broad  all  at  once."  I  had 
no  sympathy  with  the  negations  of  Evangelicals ;  but  I 
did  believe  that  their  special  emphasis  was  on  things 
of  highest  importance.  My  attitude  toward  them  was 
indicated  in  a  Convention  sermon  in  1916. 

"  Sometimes  a  distinction  is  made  between  Evangelical- 
ism, that  is  loyalty  to  the  Gospel,  and  Churchmanship.  If 
so,  there  is  no  question  that  the  former  is  the  more  im- 
portant. But  distinction  does  not  necessarily  imply  con- 
trariety; and  there  is  no  real  contrariety  here.  The  two 
things  go  together ;  and  either,  rightly  apprehended,  implies 
what  is  meant  by  the  other.  There  can  be  no  true  Church- 
manship which  has  not  an  evangelical  basis ;  and  there  can 
be  no  consistent  Evangelicalism  which  does  not  carry  itself 
to  a  churchly  conclusion.  There  is  a  thing  calling  itself 
Churchmanship  which  has  no  evangelical  root;  and  its  fruits 
are  '  apples  of  Sodom.'  There  is  a  so-called  evangelicalism 
which  rejects  all  sacramental  and  ecclesiastical  ordinances; 
but  it  only  issues  in  barren  emotionalism.  The  history  of 
Christianity  shows  that  the  two  things  need  each  other  for 
balance  and  supplementary  support. 

•  Outlines  of  Church  History,  p.  25. 


84  ANGLICANISM 

"  They  relate  fundamentally  to  the  Person  and  to  the 
Society.  The  Society  is  nothing  apart  from  the  Person; 
the  Person  is  approached  through  the  Society.  The  Person 
is  the  religion.  There  can  be  no  pretence  of  religion  in  His 
Name,  unless  the  truth  about  His  Person  be  approximately 
realized  and  the  hold  upon  His  Person  be  vital.  Nor  on 
the  other  hand  can  personal  devotion  be  satisfied,  unless  it 
use  the  means  of  personal  communion  provided  in  that 
Body  which  He  inaugurated  and  inspires.  There  can  be 
nothing  really  deep  in  religious  conviction  which  does  not 
work  itself  out  in  lofty  apprehension  of  the  Divine  love 
•which  works  in  the  Church  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  .  .  . 

"  We  often  disparage  the  terms  '  evangelical '  and  '  eccle- 
siastical '  because  both  have  been  misused  to  denote  opposite 
forms  of  Christian  one-sidedness.  Better  far  to  rehabilitate 
both  the  names  and  the  things  they  represent,  and  see  that 
the  true  ecclesiastic  is  evangelical  to  the  core,  and  that  the 
consistent  Evangelical,  if  he  only  knows  it,  is  potentially  an 
ecclesiastic  through  and  through." 

As  Bishop,  above  all  things,  I  wanted  to  be  fair,  not 
only  strictly  just,  but  sympathetic.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  Bishop  ought,  through  sympathetic  contact  with 
all  phases  of  thought  and  life  in  the  people  of  his  dio- 
cese, to  be  able  to  interpret  them  to  themselves  and  to 
others ;  but  even  more  than  this,  that  he  ought  to  repre- 
sent the  all-roundness  of  the  faith  and  life  of  the  Church 
at  large,  and  bring  to  all  limited  and  local  conceptions 
something  broader  and  more  complete.  This  he  can  do, 
if  he  is  alive  and  alert  to  use  the  opportunities  of  his 
general  experience.  He  has  chances  to  be  in  touch  with 
the  Church  as  a  whole ;  and  he  ought  to  bring  something 
of  this  into  all  parts  of  his  diocese.  He  must  represent 


ANGLICANISM  85 

what  is  before  and  about  him  in  his  own  special  field  of 
work,  but  even  more  what  is  behind  him  in  the  spirit 
and  life  of  the  Church. 

In  dealing  with  Churchmen  of  different  antecedents 
from  my  own,  I  not  only  wished  to  be  just  in  under- 
standing them,  but  also,  as  Bishop,  to  protect  them  in 
their  rights.  I  had  to  deal  with  some  whose  teaching 
on  certain  points  was,  according  to  my  standards,  de- 
ficient: but  they  had  come  by  their  beliefs  precisely  as 
I  had  come  by  mine,  through  education  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  which  had  made  them  feel,  as  it  had  me,  that 
the  genius  of  the  Church  was  best  expressed  by  the  spe- 
cial form  with  which  they  were  familiar.  I  had  come 
quite  naturally  by  one  version  of  things  in  Oxford; 
many  of  my  clergy  had  come  by  a  quite  different  one  in 
Alexandria.  The  Church  sanctioned  both  views — this 
I  had  to  admit ;  as  Bishop,  I  was  bound  to  recognize  and 
protect  both  views  impartially.  My  own  position  was 
approximately  Old  Catholic:  I  knew  clergy  who  were 
approximately  Reformed  Episcopalian.  I  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  notion  that  we  were  "  all  dishonest  to- 
gether." We  were  all  quite  honest  together,  together 
brought  up  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  quite  honest  in 
holding  as  her  special  doctrine  what  teachers  in  that 
Church  had  taught  us.  What  the  Church  at  large  toler- 
ated, as  Bishop  I  was  bound  to  tolerate.  I  had  taken 
a  solemn  oath  to  maintain  "  the  Doctrine,  Discipline, 
and  Worship  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church"; 
and  for  these  and  these  only  could  I  stand  in  Delaware. 
In  interpreting  them  I  had  to  be  guided  by  general 
custom,  not  by  personal  preference.  While  I  had  the 


86  ANGLICANISM 

same  right  as  others,  and  exercised  it  constantly,  to 
propound  and  defend  views  on  which  the  Church  had 
taken  no  definite  stand,  I  could  not  officially  insist  on 
them.  I  never  had  any  notion  of  being  a  Bishop-at- 
large,  or  that  in  any  matter  I  could  take  official  action 
beyond  the  limits  imposed  by  the  Communion  from 
which  I  had  received  my  commission. 

I  think  that,  as  my  diocese  came  to  know  me,  it  was 
generally  recognized  that  I  wished  to  be  fair,  and  that 
most  thought  that  I  was  fair.  My  relations  with  clergy 
were  almost  uniformly  pleasant.  Only  in  two  instances 
did  I  ever  meet  with  discourtesy  from  any  of  them ;  and 
in  cases  where  they  felt  they  had  grievances  against  me, 
the  grievance  evaporated,  or  I  was  eventually  credited 
with  good  intentions  if  not  good  judgment.  Differ- 
ences in  Churchmanship  never  affected  personal  rela- 
tions. I  had  no  closer  personal  friends,  or  more  effec- 
tive helpers,  than  the  Rectors  of  Immanuel,  Wilmington, 
both  Presidents  of  the  Standing  Committee,  the  Rever- 
end Kensey  Johns  Hammond  and  the  Reverend  William 
H.  Laird,  D.D.,  both  pronounced  Low  Churchmen.  I 
was  much  drawn  to  Alexandria  men  because  they  could 
understand  Delaware  people.  If  I  had  had  the  filling 
of  Delaware  parishes,  I  should  usually  have  wished  men 
who  had  their  spirit  from  Alexandria  and  their  church- 
manship  from  somewhere  else ! 

In  thinking  of  problems  created  by  the  Church's 
policy  of  tolerance,  the  most  difficult  are  those  caused 
by  denials  of  fundamental  articles  of  the  Creeds.  No 
case  of  the  sort  occurred  in  Delaware;  but  had  there 
been  one,  I  should  have  felt  bound  to  allow  what  was 


ANGLICANISM  87 

notoriously  allowed  elsewhere.  I  should  not  have  felt 
that  Delaware  could  have  had  a  standard  different  from 
that  of  Maryland  or  Pennsylvania,  since  a  standard  is 
determined  by  customary  interpretation  of  the  law  of 
the  Church.  I  approached  the  matter  from  the  stand- 
point of  equity  for  my  clergy  rather  than  that  of  strict 
legality ;  and  my  reflections  on  this  point  all  led  to  rec- 
ognition of  the  principle,  Consuetudo  est  optima  legis 
inter pres. 

In  thinking  of  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  Angli- 
can Communion,  there  were  several  incidents  which 
seemed  to  me  typical  illustrations  of  existing  condi- 
tions. Chief  of  these  were  the  case  of  Dr.  Sanday  in 
Oxford,  the  consecration  of  Dr.  Hensley  Henson  for 
Hereford,  and  the  Suter  case  in  Massachusetts.  I  find 
many  comments  on  these  in  my  letters  of  the  past  four 
years. 

"  Recently  it  has  come  to  the  Creeds.  All  official  state- 
ments stand  firmly  by  them ;  but  on  many  sides  are  claims 
being  made  that,  though  we  still  tolerate  belief  in  the 
Christian  facts,  we  do  not  try  to  impose  them.  Clergy  and 
laity  alike,  it  is  urged,  should  be  allowed  to  keep  regular 
standing  in  the  Church  without  being  required  to  hold  the 
Church's  faith  in  the  Church's  sense.  The  Bishops  of  Ox- 
ford and  Ely  may  declare  the  necessity  of  loyalty;  but  the 
Lady  Margaret  Professors  of  Divinity  in  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  oppose  them  on  the  plea  that  the  Church  must 
specially  cherish  '  scholarship '  which  has  lost  belief  in 
miracle.  The  young  writers  of  Foundations  go  on  sapping; 
and  the  Bishops  meanwhile  are  impotent.  Anglicans  are 
still  to  be  permitted  to  believe  in  the  Virgin  Birth  and  the 


88  ANGLICANISM 

Resurrection;  but  they  must  tolerate  explanations  that  ex- 
plain away."  * 

"  The  Massachusetts  case  is  staggering.  There  could  not 
be  a  more  obvious  demand  for  episcopal  censure.  A  clergy- 
man in  an  influential  position,  in  a  manual  intended  for 
diocesan  Sunday  Schools,  denies  the  Virgin  Birth;  and  the 
matter  is  formally  brought  to  the  Bishop's  attention.  If 
we  have  any  concern  for  the  Faith  at  all,  here  was  a  case 
calling  for  action.  I  do  not  credit  the  report  that  Bishop 
Lawrence  snubbed  those  who  objected  to  such  teaching.  He 
is  too  invariably  kind  and  courteous  for  that.  I  think  it 
probable  that  the  motive  underlying  his  inaction  is  a  wish 
to  maintain  kindly  relations.  It  is  bad  manners  to  intro- 
duce disagreeable  topics ;  therefore  let  us  avoid  doctrinal 
discussions!  This  shows  an  indifference  to  the  truth  and 
imperious  claims  of  Divine  revelation,  which  I  could  not 
defend:  but  I  think  it  fair  to  recognize  the  amiability  of  a 
desire  to  keep  the  peace.  (Yet  there  is  often  more  tender- 
ness for  those  who  deny,  than  for  those  who  uphold,  the 
Faith  in  our  semi-Arian  pacificism!)  I  wholly  disapprove 
the  Bishop's  action  as  giving  tacit  sanction  to  denial  of  the 
Virgin  Birth;  but  my  trouble  is  not  over  the  unwisdom,  or 
even  possible  disloyalty,  of  the  Bishop  of  Massachusetts, 
but  over  the  significance  of  the  incident  as  illustration  of 
what  is  true  in  the  Church  at  large.  I  am  afraid  that  in 
ignoring  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  Bishop  only  too  con- 
sistently represents  a  spirit  in  the  Church  to  which  we  must 
all  succumb.  I  can  quite  see  a  plausible  defence  for  such 
inaction.  Denials  of  the  Virgin  Birth  have  become  notori- 
ously common  in  the  Church  of  England  and  among  our- 
selves. Only  in  exceptional  cases  has  there  been  formal 
condemnation,  and  this  secured  with  difficulty.  The  general 

•  Issues,  p.  22. 


ANGLICANISM  89 

policy  and  custom  in  the  Church  is  to  ignore  such  things. 
Under  the  circumstances  he  might  well  feel  that  he  could  not 
try  to  set  up  in  Massachusetts  a  stricter  standard  than  exists 
elsewhere.  Our  discipline  has  generally  broken  down  and 
cannot  be  tinkered  into  shape  by  diocesan  experiments. 
There  must  be  some  fresh  start  made  by  the  Church  as  a 
whole.  Had  such  a  case  arisen  in  Delaware,  my  action 
would  have  been  very  different  from  Bishop  Lawrence's; 
but  I  can  see  that  I  should  have  felt  hampered  by  existing 
conditions,  and  out  of  regard  for  what  was  fair  for 
Delaware  clergy  should  have  contented  myself  with  some 
public  statement  about  the  Virgin  Birth,  finding  it  practi- 
cally impossible  to  arrange  for  proper  trial  of  such  a  case. 
However  emphatic  I  might  have  been  in  my  personal  teach- 
ing, I  might  have  found  that  officially  I  was  forced  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  Bishop  of  Massachusetts.  The  mistakes 
of  an  individual  Bishop  are  only  challenges  to  others  to 
show  more  determined  loyalty ;  the  sting  of  this  thing  is  not 
that  the  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  is  wrong,  but  that,  as 
representative  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  he  may 
be  right." 

"  Henson  is  a  capital  instance  of  the  irrepressible  issue. 
As  a  mere  sin  he  would  be  quite  tolerable;  as  a  consistent 
illustration,  he  is  quite  unsettling.  The  trouble  is  not  that 
his  consecration  was  wrong,  but  that  it  was  probably  right. 
An  unwise  or  even  unfaithful  Archbishop,  or  batch  of 
Bishops,  would  be  merely  a  challenge  to  the  rest  of  us 
to  be  wise  and  loyal.  The  sting  in  this  matter  is  that  you 
or  I  in  the  Archbishop's  place  would  have  felt  bound  to  do 
as  he  has  done,  and  that  in  our  respective  dioceses  we  are 
all  the  time  forced  to  do  things  of  the  same  kind.  Henson 
has  denied  the  authority  of  episcopate  and  priesthood,  the 
sacramental  principle  generally ;  and  he  defends,  if  he  does 


90  ANGLICANISM 

not  make,  denials  of  certain  articles  in  the  Creed.  His 
flimsy  assertion  of  loyalty  does  not  alter  the  essential  facts. 
Only  explicit  retractions  and  expressions  of  penitence  could 
put  him  out  of  the  category  of  repudiators  of  the  historic 
ministry,  sacraments,  and  creeds.  But  the  Archbishop,  as 
conscientious  administrator  of  the  system  of  the  Establish- 
ment, has  to  consecrate  him,  since  that  system  comprises  all 
'  schools  of  thought,'  is  especially  tender  toward  all  scep- 
tics, and  only  severe  toward  those  who  take  its  profession 
of  loyalty  to  the  ancient  Church  seriously.  The  Arch- 
bishop is  consistent  with  himself  and  post-Reformation  tra- 
dition in  acting  as  he  has  done.  Henson  succeeds  Percival 
and  Hampden  as  merely  one  more  example  of  the  Church 
of  England's  determination  to  preserve  the  type.  There  is 
no  getting  away  from  Henry  VIII  and  Cranmer,  lay-domi- 
nation and  cringing  concession  to  disbelief  in  the  super- 
natural. It  is  all  nonsense  to  set  up  King  Charles  and  Laud 
as  typical  Anglicans.  The  only  characteristically  Anglican 
thing  about  them  was  their  fate!  Canterbury  only  brings 
to  light  what  is  equally  true  in  your  diocese  and  mine. 
.  .  .  You  believe  sincerely  in  the  articles  of  the  Creed  as 
expressing  the  truth  of  Scripture,  and  wish  to  banish  denials 
of  them  from  your  diocese.  You  are  at  liberty  to  hold  them 
in  the  privacy  of  your  own  mind  and  may  talk  of  them, 
if  you  do  so  academically;  but  your  clergy  and  laity  may 
deny  them  freely,  and  though  your  personal  opinions  are 
known  to  be  opposed,  you  are  practically  impotent  to  stop 
them.  You  have  to  recognize  men  of  Henson's  stamp  as 
in  perfectly  good  standing,  and  would  scarcely  refuse  to 
ordain  a  young  man  who  had  expressed  Henson's  views,  if 
any  vague  profession  gave  you  a  loop-hole  for  doing  so." 

"  The  Church  plainly  tolerates  and  encourages  different 
conceptions  of  her  character  and  practical  duties.     One  of 


ANGLICANISM  91 

these  is  that  the  Divinely  appointed  way  of  perpetuating 
Christianity  was  the  establishment  of  a  hierarchical  society 
which,  like  every  other  society,  adopted  a  system  of  disci- 
pline for  the  safeguarding  of  faith  and  practice;  and  that 
our  own  Church,  truly  representing  the  original  Church, 
maintains  similar  discipline  for  the  protection  of  the 
Church's  life.  Those  who  hold  this  view  interpret  the 
Anglican  position  in  terms  of  the  history  of  the  ancient 
Church,  one  consequence  of  which  is  belief  in  barriers  for 
safeguarding  the  Faith  and  Sacraments.  '  Open  Com- 
munion '  and  indifference  to  dogma  are  as  impossible  for 
them  as  for  Christians  of  the  early  days.  They  are  not 
mere  legalists,  but  believe  that  there  is  no  liberty  save 
through  obedience  to  law,  especially  law  protective  of  doc- 
trine. This  view  has  always  had  its  representatives  in  the 
Anglican  Communion,  including  the  most  learned  and  holy 
divines  in  the  Church  of  England  and  some  of  the  most 
able  men  of  the  Church  in  America. 

"  But  this  view  is  only  one  among  others,  one  of  which 
directly  opposes  it.  It  is  distinctly  exclusive,  whereas 
Anglicanism,  in  this  country  as  well  as  in  England,  is 
notoriously  inclusive  of  all  who  approach  it  from  the 
Protestant  side.  In  our  own  Church,  we  have  aimed  at 
making  room  for  all  possessing  amiable  intentions  who  are 
willing  to  make  any  use  whatever  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  The  policy  of  comprehension,  complaisant  toward 
all  Protestants,  is  the  antithesis  of  the  other  policy  of  rigid 
loyalty  to  the  principles  of  the  historic  Catholic  Church. 
Bishop  Lawrence  represents  the  one,  you  the  other.  Both 
are  '  probable  opinions  '  in  the  Anglican  Communion ;  both 
have  the  sanction  of  '  approved  doctors  ' ;  both  are  held  by 
many  of  our  co-religionists :  but  they  are  contradictory  and 
cannot  long  co-exist.  Your  view  has  more  historical  backing 
than  the  other;  but  in  modern  practice,  in  case  of  conflict,  it 


92  ANGLICANISM 

is  your  view  which  always  has  to  yield.  The  Latitudi- 
narian  lion  will  only  lie  down  with  the  Catholic  lamb  inside 
— if  it  bleats  ! 

"  The  Cambridge  incident  raises  no  new  question  and 
forces  no  issue  for  me,  merely  illustrates  the  problem  which 
has  been  troubling  me  for  years  and  is  demanding  speedy 
solution  as  concerns  myself  in  relation  to  my  work." 


If  one  thing  more  than  another  served  to  banish  my 
faith  in  the  Anglican  Communion,  it  was  recognition  of 
the  practical  tolerance  of  every  form  of  heresy  and  the 
conviction  that  this  was  due  to  an  inherent  and  in- 
eradicable tendency,  to  organic  not  functional  disorder. 
Hence  this  was  the  first  reason  I  assigned  for  abandon- 
ment of  work.  "  After  long  struggle  against  the  con- 
viction, I  have  been  forced  to  admit  that  this  toleration 
of  doctrinal  laxity  seems  to  me  to  indicate  that  the 
Church's  Discipline  fails  to  express  and  defend  its  Doc- 
trine, and  creates  an  insuperable  difficulty  for  those 
who  believe  in  .the  fundamental  importance  of  the  his- 
toric doctrine  of  the  Incarnation." 

In  relation  to  sacramental  teaching  also  I  came  even- 
tually to  feel  that  "  inclusiveness  is  not  a  glory,  but  a 
give-away."  Varieties  in  ritual  never  troubled  me; 
varieties  in  faith  did.  One  of  the  most  striking  phases 
in  the  experience  of  an  Anglican  Bishop  is  the  constant 
change  of  air  and  temperature  in  his  administration  of 
Sacraments.  Of  necessity  he  carries  much  of  his  atmos- 
phere with  him :  but,  as  he  finds  himself  now  confirming 
a  class  prepared  to  look  on  the  ceremony  merely  as 
ratification  of  vows  which  constitute  the  chief  signifi- 


ANGLICANISM  93 

cance  of  Baptism,  and  again  on  the  same  day  confirming 
another  class  presented  in  expectation  of  receiving  the 
sevenfold  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  now  celebrating  the 
Eucharist  in  a  church  where  priest  and  people  believe  in 
the  Divine  Eucharistic  Presence,  again  in  one  in  which 
Communion  is  viewed  Zwinglian-fashion  as  a  curious 
sign  and  suggestion  of  the  death  on  Calvary ;  now  in  one 
in  which  the  Eucharist  is  the  central  and  customary 
act  of  worship,  and  again  in  another  in  which  it  is  only 
an  occasional,  and  rather  tiresome,  appendage  to  Morn- 
ing Prayer — as  he  undergoes  these  and  similar  changes 
of  doctrinal  and  devotional  temperature,  sudden  transi- 
tions from  the  hot  room  to  the  cold  plunge,  he  must 
reflect  on  the  necessity  of  toughness  in  episcopal  con- 
stitutions, and  ask  often,  What  does,  and  what  doesn't, 
the  Church  teach?  I  have  never  been  a  "  ritualist "  in 
the  sense  of  being  dependent  on,  or  attaching  much  im- 
portance to,  externals.  I  have  always  been  able  to  use 
or  to  dispense  with  them.  But  I  have  never  been  able  to 
dispense  with  faith  in  the  Sacraments  as  Divine  Mys- 
teries. Given  this,  it  makes  no  difference  how  plain  a 
service  is;  without  it,  no  amount  of  music  and  cere- 
mony count  for  anything.  The  one  thing  as  Bishop  I 
wished  most  to  do  was  to  celebrate  the  Holy  Eucharist 
for  my  people.  I  could  adapt  myself  to  any  surround- 
ings without  thought  of  them.  During  my  first  years  in 
Delaware,  I  had  no  consciousness  of  difference  in  kind, 
though  I  recognized  degrees,  of  belief  as  to  what  the 
Eucharist  really  is.  Later  I  came  to  feel  that  in  some 
places  there  was  no  conception  of  the  Presence,  the 
Sacrifice,  or  the  actual  Communion,  that  in  instances 


94  ANGLICANISM 

the  ideas  of  these  things  were  hated.  I  disliked  to 
celebrate  in  an  atmosphere  of  unbelief,  and  during  my 
last  two  years  avoided  doing  so.  I  recognized  that  to 
some  the  Zwinglian  notion  of  bare  signs  came  quite  as 
naturally  as  to  others  the  Catholic  conception  of  the 
Mass ;  but  I  recognized  also  that  it  was  the  lowest 
terms,  not  the  highest,  of  its  sacramental  teaching, 
which  the  Church's  system  actually  served  to  propa- 
gate, and  I  ceased  to  believe  in  ambiguity  of  statement 
as  the  one  mode  of  preserving  balance  of  truth.  It  was 
this  experience  which  eventually  led  me  to  give  my 
second  reason  for  resignation. 


"  The  Episcopal  Church  permits  and  encourages  a 
variety  of  views  about  Sacraments.  Its  standard,  however, 
is  determined  by  the  minimum,  rather  than  by  the  maximum 
view  tolerated,  since  its  official  position  must  be  gauged  not 
by  the  most  it  allows  but  by  the  least  it  insists  on.  Its 
general  influence  has  fluid  qualities  always  seeking  the 
lowest  possible  level.  The  stream  of  its  life  cannot  rise 
higher  than  its  source  in  corporate  authority.  Individual 
belief  and  practice  may  surmount  this ;  but  they  will  ulti- 
mately count  for  nothing  so  long  as  they  find  no  expres- 
sion in  official  action;  nor  can  the  Church  be  judged  by 
the  standard  of  individual  members  acting  in  independence 
of  it. 

"  Like  many  others,  I  attach  highest  importance  to  the 
doctrines  of  Baptismal  Regeneration,  of  the  Real  Presence 
in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  of  the  Eucharistic  Sacrifice,  of  the 
sacramental  character  of  Confirmation  and  Penance.  All 
these  doctrines  the  Church  tolerates ;  but  so  long  as  equal 
toleration  is  given  to  others  of  a  different  or  even  neutraliz- 


ANGLICANISM  95 

ing  sort,  this  is  not  definitely  to  teach  them.  To  tolerate 
everything  is  to  teach  nothing.  Hence  though  individuals 
among  us  may  urge  the  importance  of  these  definite  beliefs, 
they  cannot  claim  the  full  authoritative  backing  of  that 
portion  of  the  Church  to  which  they  profess  allegiance. 

"  The  sacramental  teaching  of  the  Episcopal  Church  is 
non-committal,  with  the  consequence  that  its  official  teachers 
are  habitually  vague  in  their  utterances,  and  that  the  beliefs 
of  many  of  its  members  are  approximately  or  actually 
Zwinglian.  A  general  policy  of  comprehension  by  reduc- 
tion of  requirements  to  lowest  terms  prevents  conversion  by 
raising  to  highest  possibilities.  Although  there  has  been 
marked  advance  among  some,  of  our  people  owing  to  deeper 
hold  of  sacramental  truth,  there  has  been  even  greater 
retrogression  among  others  toward  rationalistic  scepticism. 
On  the  whole,  the  Church  seems  to  be  swayed  by  the  ten- 
dencies of  the  age  opposed  to  the  supernatural  owing  to 
ambiguities  inherent  in  its  system,  always  subject  to  an 
intellectual  law  of  gravilation." 

This  statement  of  reasons  for  resignation  represents 
a  decision  reached  in  1919.  The  first  stages  of  the 
process  which  led  to  it  date  from  1911  or  1912.  In 
looking  backward,  I  see  in  my  withdrawal  in  1911  from 
the  executive  committee  of  the  World  Conference  on 
Faith  and  Order  the  beginning  of  giving  up  altogether. 
At  the  time  I  thought  of  it  only  as  due  to  lack  of 
sympathy  with  the  policies  of  the  moving  spirits  on 
the  Commission,  and  to  ill  health  which  made  travel- 
ling difficult.  I  see  now  that  I  was  vaguely  con- 
scious of  being  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Church's 
presuppositions.  Shortly  after,  I  withdrew  from  every 
Board,  Committee,  and  Commission  of  which  I  was 


96  ANGLICANISM 

member  and  refused  to  accept  any  subsequent  appoint- 
ments from  General  Convention  or  the  Provincial 
Synod.  After  1912,  I  confined  myself  to  my  diocese. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  the  procedure  of  the  World  Con- 
ference Commission  was  fundamentally  wrong.  My 
notion  was  that  the  initiative  must  come  from  the 
Catholic  Church,  which  I  conceived  to  be  represented 
by  the  Roman,  Eastern,  and  Anglican  Communions ; 
and  of  these  I  felt  it  to  be  of  practical  importance  to 
induce  the  Roman  to  take  the  lead.  I  could  not  con- 
ceive that  any  such  project  could  come  to  a  successful 
issue  except  by  reference  first  to  the  Catholic  Com- 
munions, and  some  initial  understanding  between  the 
Big  Three.  This  now  seems  to  me  chimerical;  but  it 
was  the  only  possible  view  I  could  have  in  1911.  The 
Conference  Commission  issued  a  general  appeal  to 
"  Communions  "  for  "  Commissions,"  with  the  result  of 
response  from  many  Protestant  bodies.  This  assump- 
tion that  all  "  Communions  "  were  on  the  same  basis 
seemed  to  me  to  be  based  on  individualistic  principles 
which  did  not  take  account  of  the  actual  facts  in  the 
Christian  world;  it  seemed  to  view  Christendom  as  com- 
posed of  the  sporadically  baptized  who  coalesced  in  con- 
gregations, which  in  turn  combined  to  form  commun- 
ions, which,  if  federated,  might  form  a  Catholic  Church. 
As  practical  policy  as  well  as  correct  theory,  I  wished 
to  begin  with  the  Church  not  with  the  individual.  I 
should  not  now  attempt  to  defend  my  theory  of  the 
Church;  and  I  now  consider  that  the  Commission  not 
only  was  going  about  its  work  in  the  way  expected, 
but  was  acting  in  accordance  with  the  ecclesiastical 


ANGLICANISM  97 

theory  most  in  accord  with  Anglican  precedent.  But 
the  method  seemed  to  me  to  be  an  endeavor  to  piece  to- 
gether fragments  of  the  circumference  of  the  Christian 
world  without  reference  to  centre  or  radius.  I  was 
compelled  to  consider  very  carefully  my  exact  relation 
to  the  plans  of  the  Commission,  as  I  had  been  elected 
Executive  Secretary  with  presumably  important  re- 
sponsibilities. In  declining  the  Secretaryship,  I  ex- 
pressed my  misgivings  as  to  the  procedure  adopted  in 
a  letter  to  the  Reverend  Dr.  Manning. 

XIX  Trinity,  1911. 

"  I  must  ask  you  again,  as  I  did  last  July,  to  convey  to 
the  Commission  my  reluctant  declination  of  the  post  of 
Executive  Secretary  to  which  they  did  me  the  honor  to 
elect  me  last  spring.  ...  I  am  not  sure  that  I  am  suf- 
ficiently in  accord  with  the  rest  of  the  Executive  Committee 
to  make  it  probable  that  I  should  be  an  effective  Secretary. 
I  must  say  frankly  that  I  cannot  give  cordial  assent  to  the 
report  of  April  20th.  I  think  I  do  not  take  exception  to 
any  statement  contained  in  it;  but  I  fear  I  am  not  in  agree- 
ment with  some  of  its  fundamental  assumptions  as  to  the 
method  of  approaching  the  great  project  we  have  under- 
taken. Some  divergence  there  is  between  my  own  opinions 
and  the  presuppositions  of  the  report;  but  as  I  was  not 
present  at  the  discussions  which  preceded  its  adoption,  I 
cannot  determine  the  exact  degree.  I  think,  however,  that 
I  can  state  shortly  the  main  point  of  my  disagreement. 

"  I  take  the  aim  of  the  World  Conference  very  seriously, 
that  sober  effort  is  to  be  made  to  pave  the  way  for  a  really 
ecumenical  conference,  an  effort  that  can  only  be  made  by 
ecumenical  methods.  If  we  are  at  the  outset  to  adopt  these, 
we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  too  greatly  influenced 


98  ANGLICANISM 

by  the  presuppositions  of  American  Protestantism.  Ameri- 
can Protestants  constitute  only  a  fraction  of  the  Christian 
world  and  a  comparatively  unimportant  fraction  at  that. 
Their  isolation  makes  it  difficult  to  assume  that  their 
methods  of  working  are  identical  with  those  of  other  por- 
tions of  Christendom.  If  we  allow  our  project  to  assume  a 
distinctly  American  Protestant  aspect,  the  moment  we  do 
so  the  hope  of  a  World  Conference  will  be  lost. 

"  It  seems  to  me  there  is  danger  of  this  in  our  indis- 
criminate use  of  the  term  '  Communions '  and  our  in- 
discriminate appeal  for  '  Commissions '  appointed  by 
'  Conventions.'  Such  an  appeal  is  natural  enough  in  ap- 
proaching American  Protestant  bodies,  numbered  by  hun- 
dreds and  all  more  or  less  congregational  in  character  and 
methods  of  working;  but  it  is  not  the  natural  sort  of  appeal 
to  make  to  representatives  of  the  great  sections  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  having  diametrically  opposed  con- 
ceptions of  ecclesiastical  authority  and  different  methods  of 
procedure.  ...  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  a  long  list 
of  American  Protestant  Commissions  might  represent  not 
stages  in,  but  obstacles  to,  real  progress  in  a  world-wide 
movement.  American  Protestantism  must  have  its  place 
in  a  World  Conference  and  share  in  bringing  it  to  pass ;  but 
it  can  only  have  such  place  and  share  as  it  is  entitled  to  in 
a  duly  proportioned  view  of  the  whole  of  Christendom  and 
the  whole  of  Christian  history.  American  Protestantism 
bulks  large  in  our  vision  because  we  live  in  the  midst  of  it; 
but  we  must  adjust  the  vision  to  broad  and  distant  views. 
If,  as  seems  to  me,  there  is  something  of  distinctly  Con- 
gregational presupposition  in  some  of  our  action  hitherto, 
we  are  in  great  danger  of  quickly  demonstrating  our  utter 
inability  to  further  the  great  object  which  we  feel  ourselves 
Providentially  guided  to  undertake.  A  really  representa- 
tive General  Commission  will  never  be  evolved  out  of  a 


ANGLICANISM  99 

'  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms/  such  as  vague  appeal  for 
action  by  '  communions  '  can  only  evoke.  If  action  is  to 
be  effective,  there  must  be  from  the  outset  some  active 
principle  of  correlation." 

Here  follows  detailed  suggestion  of  a  possible  mode  of 
procedure: 

1.  Formation  of  a  General  Committee;  2.  American 
Inter-Church  Congress;  3.  United  Appeal  from  American 
Christians  for  World  Conference.  "  It  seems  to  me  con- 
ceivable that  a  representative  of  our  Commission,  presum- 
ably our  Executive  Secretary,  might  at  this  time  seek  to 
induce  a  body  of  ten  or  twelve,  half  Catholics  and  half 
Protestants,  to  draw  up  and  sign  a  statement  as  to  what  is 
involved  in  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  as  Lord  and  Saviour, 
and  the  reasons  for  making  this  the  necessary  basis  for 
consideration  of  questions  of  Faith  and  Order.  Such  a 
statement  would  be  of  value,  even  if  nothing  else  were  done 
at  present." 

I  was  disposed  to  urge  an  American  Conference  as  a 
practically  possible  preliminary  to  a  World  Conference. 

"  The  Christian  world  would  listen  if  representatives  of 
all  forms  of  American  Christianity  were  to  be  able  to  say, 
'  We  have  accomplished  something  useful  on  a  national 
scale;  and  this  gives  us  confidence  that  something  similar 
can  be  accomplished  on  an  ecumenical  scale ! '  The  Pope, 
the  Czar,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  would  be  more 
likely  to  fall  in  line  if  they  were  confronted  not  with  a 
theory  but  with  a  condition.  They  would  be  more  impressed 
by  an  object-lesson,  the  value  of  which  had  been  attested 
by  their  own  people,  than  by  statement  of  a  mere  amiable 
aspiration.  It  is  probably  the  surest  way,  possibly  the  only 


100  ANGLICANISM 

way,  of  making  an  impression  on  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Churches,  perhaps  the  surest  way  of  gaining  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Anglican  Communion.  ...  I  think  this  in 
consequence  of  conversations  I  had  last  winter  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  other  English  Bishops.  .  .  . 
"  Some  such  method  as  I  have  indicated  would  seem  to 
me  the  only  sort  likely  to  be  effective.  If  I  am  mistaken, 
this  will  serve  to  show  the  Committee  that  I  would  not 
make  a  good  Executive  Secretary.  At  any  rate,  I  am 
firmly  convinced  that  nothing  can  be  done  until  there  is  a 
balanced  body  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  ready  to  direct 
the  first  stages  of  the  movement;  and  I  fear  that  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  hamper  future  action  by  anything  which 
will  prove  one-sided  in  its  effects,  no  matter  how  balanced 
it  is  in  theory  and  intention." 

At  the  same  time  I  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  Chicago 
(Dr.  Anderson),  President  of  the  Commission. 

December  I,  Ipll. 

"  At  the  risk  of  seeming  pessimistic,  I  am  bound  to  say 
that  I  do  not  think  we  have  yet  done  anything  that  counts 
for  much  in  view  of  what  we  have  in  mind;  and  that  we 
do  not  seem  to  have  given  any  clear  indication  of  appre- 
hending the  state  of  things  in  the  Christian  world  as  a 
whole.  If  we  are  not  to  wreck  our  chances  of  usefulness 
at  the  outset,  there  must  be  formulation  of  a  definite  policy 
which  will  control  as  well  as  guide  the  Commission's  action. 
It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  we  can  yet  be  said  to  have  a 
policy.  We  have  an  amiable  aspiration  and  a  number  of 
incoherent  notions;  but  these  do  not  constitute  a  policy: 
and  the  time  has  come  when  we  ought  to  be  making  definite 
proposals  instead  of  merely  repeating  the  fine  generaliza- 
tions with  which  we  started.  We  cannot  be  hurried  into 


ANGLICANISM  101 

premature  declarations;  but  whatever  we  do  and  say  ought 
to  be  related  to  some  central  conceptions  based  on  sound 
knowledge  of  facts  in  the  ecclesiastical  world." 


At  the  same  time  that  I  discovered  that  I  was  not  en 
rapport  with  the  World  Conference  Commission,  I  was 
finding  myself  in  other  ways  not  in  sympathetic  con- 
tact with  movements  in  the  Church;  and  I  was  doing 
much  reading  on  the  English  Reformation  which  was 
modifying  my  historical  views.  Aggravated,  if  not 
caused,  by  worry  over  ecclesiastical  questions,  an  ill- 
ness that  came  on  in  1911  depressed  me  very  much. 
In  the  latter  part  of  1911,  or  early  in  1912,  I  first 
considered  the  possibility  of  having  to  give  up  my 
work,  ostensibily  on  the  ground  of  ill  health,  really 
because  I  began  to  feel  what  J.  S.  Mill  calls  "the 
disastrous  feeling  of  l  not  worth  while.'  "  As  I  wrote 
to  some  one  at  this  time,  "  I  am  suffering  from  acute 
P.E.-itis." 

I  was  more  and  more  coming  to  recognize  that  what 
I  had  regarded  as  the  real  teaching  and  position  of  the 
Church  were  only  representative  of  a  tolerated  party  in 
the  Church.  I  cared  nothing  for  merely  holding  or  pro- 
pounding my  own  views,  or  for  merely  having  my  own 
way,  as  I  could  more  freely  than  most  others.  I  only 
cared  for  what  officially  I  stood  for  and  only  wished  to 
be  received  for  what  was  signified  by  my  office.  As  I 
came  to  feel  that  this  represented  only  a  system  of 
futile  compromise,  much  as  I  liked  being  "  of  Dela- 
ware," I  came  to  dislike  being  "  Bishop."  Phillips 
Brooks,  on  first  sitting  in  the  House  of  Bishops,  wrote: 


102  ANGLICANISM 

"  The  Bishops  are  not  very  wise,  nor  very  clever;  but 
they  think  they  are,  and  they  very  much  enjoy  being 
Bishops."  I  never  qualified  under  these  last  conditions, 
and  felt  that  there  was  something  uncanny  about  those 
who  did ! 

April  6,  1913. 

"  I  am  sorry  you  don't  like  the  portrait  (one  painted 
by  Mr.  Ruel  Crorapton  Tuttle,  in  1912).  I  like  it  very 
much  indeed.  I  quite  admit  that  it  looks  like  a 
bilious  undertaker  not  yet  recovered  from  the  death  of  his 
third  wife,  that  it  is  altogether  lugubrious  and  woe-begone, 
that  I  don't  think  it  looks  like  what  I  really  am  inside.  But 
it  does  exactly  image  my  feelings  as  a  P.  E.  Bishop !  Re- 
member it  is  to  be  my  official  portrait  at  Bishopstead. 

"  '  As  when  a  painter  poring  on  a  face 

Divinely  through  all  hindrance  finds  the  man/ 

so  Ruel  Tuttle,  scrutinizing  my  mug,  has  discovered  my 
official  emotions.  The  picture  looks  exactly  like  I  feel  when 
I  am  thinking  about  the  way  things  are  not  going  in  the 
Church.  I  don't  want  it  touched  up  or  cheered  up.  Let  it 
be  as  it  is.  Like  Cromwell,  let  me  be  painted  '  wart  and  all.' 
I  cannot  be  beautiful  and  need  not  be  cheerful;  but  let  me  in 
any  case  be  historically  accurate.  A  genuine  artist  has 
been  able,  first,  to  see  things  as  they  are,  and,  then,  to  de- 
pict what  he  has  seen.  I  am  glad  he  painted  me  in 
academicals.  In  years  to  come  this  will  properly  place  me 
in  the  line  of  Bishops  of  Delaware,  a  sulky  scarlet  tanager 
in  a  bevy  of  complacent  magpies.  If  ever  I  get  out  of  this, 
I  will  be  painted  again ;  and  then  you  will  see  me  grinning 
like  a  Cheshire  pussy !  " 

Episcopalianism  is  merely  a  form  of  Congregational- 
ism, to  which  the  "  historic  episcopate "  forms  an 


ANGLICANISM  103 

anomalous  adjunct.  Congregationalism  means  minis- 
terialism.  Ministers  are  cast  loose  in  society  to  estab- 
lish or  to  hold  personal  followings ;  each  is  concerned  to 
proclaim  his  own  views  and  put  in  practice  his  own 
schemes.  This  tends  to  develop  ministerial  egotism  and 
resolves  church  work  into  prosecution  of  parochial  ac- 
tivities under  special  personal  leadership.  The  one  vital 
question  is  "  Do  you  like  the  minister?  "  To  like  him, 
to  attend  his  ministrations,  and  to  co-operate  in  his 
schemes  is  to  exhibit  a  high  degree  of  piety :  not  to  like 
him,  to  disparage  him  by  contrast  with  his  predecessor, 
and  to  be  alert  to  oust  him  for  a  man  of  different  type, 
is  to  exhibit  a  higher,  since  it  is  the  virtue  of  Protes- 
tantism to  protest.  Episcopalian  ministers  are  prac- 
tically left  to  their  own  devices  as  much  as  any  others. 
They  are  supposed  to  use  the  Prayer  Book;  their  Con- 
gregationalism is  supposed  to  be  "  tempered  by  episco- 
pacy " ;  they  are  connected  with  a  well-organized  system 
which  seeks  to  raise  parochialism  into  diocesanism  and 
this  into  broader  churchmanship :  but  in  fact  there  is 
little  behind  them  to  help  or  to  hamper ;  they  are  thrown 
almost  entirely  upon  their  own  resources,  and  personal 
popularity  is  the  condition  of  success.  If  a  minister  is 
personally  agreeable,  his  congregation  is  disposed  to 
follow  his  lead  in  thought  and  parochial  action;  if  his 
successor  is  also  personally  agreeable,  they  will  with 
equal  readiness  follow  him  along  quite  different  lines. 
The  important  thing  is  not  church  principles  but  minis- 
terial manners.  If  the  latter  are  winning,  things  will 
move  apace,  and  there  will  be  much  parochial  self-com- 
placency. But  work  resolves  itself  into  personal,  paro- 


104  ANGLICANISM 

chial  followings ;  its  divisions  are  those  of  pastorates ; 
its  continuity  is  precarious.  In  the  Episcopal  Church, 
some  of  the  most  conspicuous  examples  of  applied  indi- 
vidualism in  ministerial  free-lances  are  to  be  found  in 
"  Catholic  parishes."  This  is  inevitable.  Those  who 
believe  they  possess  the  Catholic  priesthood  and  the 
Catholic  episcopate  are  bound,  by  conditions  of  the 
Episcopalian  system,  to  act  as  priests-at-random  and 
bishops-at-large.  I  never  could  go  about  my  work  in 
this  way.  Much  as  I  cared  for  the  liking  of  people  in 
Delaware  and  revelled  in  adding  to  my  collection  of 
friends,  I  never  tried  to  build  up  work  on  the  basis 
of  a  personal  following.  Congregational  methods 
seemed  to  me  a  travesty  on  the  true  work  of  Bishops 
and  Priests  in  the  Church  of  God,  to  illustrate  the 
effort  to  "  raise  an  altar  on  one's  own  centre  of 
gravity  "  and  to  be  "  a  little  Holy  Catholic  Church, 
all  by  one's  self."  I  could  never  view  every  minority 
of  one  as  an  Athanasius,  or  feel  that  the  one 
criterion  of  Catholic  truth  was  that  it  should  be 
held  by  only  one  person !  I  was  never  one  of  those 
Anglo-Catholics  who  can  think  of  themselves  each  as 
Athanasius  contra — Ecclesiam.  Ego  contra:  ergo 
Athanasius! 

During  the  latter  part  of  1912,  I  was  definitely  con- 
sidering that  it  would  possibly  be  my  duty  to  resign  my 
jurisdiction  at  the  General  Convention  of  1913,  and  in 
January  of  1913  I  went  to  see  the  Bishop  of  Vermont 
(Dr.  Hall)  to  ask  his  advice.  From  that  time  I  kept 
him  informed  as  to  my  ecclesiastical  difficulties.  The 
only  letters  I  wrote  on  the  subject  at  this  time  were 


ANGLICANISM  105 

addressed  to  the  Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands  (Dr. 
Brent),  who  had  written  some  things  which  made  me 
wish  to  take  him  into  my  confidence. 

October  8,  1912. 

"  My  position  would  seem  to  be  one  of  vantage  and  my 
task  comparatively  easy.  I  have  a  small,  easily  adminis- 
tered field,  fair  equipment  for  such  work  as  has  immediately 
to  be  done ;  and  I  was  sent  here  to  succeed  one  who  con- 
sistently upheld  Catholic  ideals  and  tried  to  establish  work 
on  Catholic  lines  for  twenty  years.  As  tasks  go,  mine  is 
comparatively  simple;  and  as  conditions  go,  mine  on  the 
whole  are  favorable.  But  in  spite  of  determination  to  keep 
hopeful  and  seem  cheerful,  I  believe  I  have  really  lost  con- 
fidence in  the  ability  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
really  to  witness  to  Catholic  Christianity  in  Delaware,  or 
to  expect  that  it  will  ever  do  anything  other  than  develop 
a  type  of  Protestantism  less  vulgar  and  somewhat  less  igno- 
rant than  Methodism.  At  the  time  of  my  consecration  and 
for  two  years  after,  I  believed  enthusiastically  in  the  mis- 
sion of  our  church  to  develop  Catholic  Christianity  for 
Americans,  and  that  the  Catholic  interpretation  of  Angli- 
canism is  the  only  reasonable  one.  But  my  wider  experi- 
ence of  the  Church  has  taught  me  two  things,  the  actual 
Protestantism  of  the  majority  of  our  people  and  the  really 
Protestant  character  of  our  historical  antecedents.  I  have 
not  lost  my  loyalty  to  the  ideal  I  was  taught  in  the  Angli- 
can Church.  The  older  I  grow,  the  more  I  feel  that  the 
ideals  of  Anglican  Catholics  are  the  noblest  things  I  know; 
but  I  have  ceased  to  feel  that  they  can  be  regarded  as  those 
of  the  Church,  or  much  more  than  the  aspiration  of  a 
party  using  its  Protestant  private  judgment  in  a  Catholic 
direction.  But  for  effective  action  we  must  have  the  Church, 


106  ANGLICANISM 

not  merely  a  party  within  the  Church,  behind  us.  I  imagine 
you  feel  that.  And  unless  the  Church  as  a  whole  appro- 
priates what  hitherto  has  been  the  property  of  the  Catholic 
party  within  it,  I  despair  for  the  Church.  And  that  the 
Anglican  Communion  ever  will  realize  its  potential  Catho- 
licity, I  fear  I  have  ceased  to  expect.  I  believe  that  we  are 
on  the  brink  of  a  crisis  which  will  determine  whether  we  are 
to  pursue  a  Protestant  or  a  Catholic  career.  I  believe  that 
it  is  more  likely  than  not  that  the  choice  will  be  virtually 
Protestant.  I  am  disillusioned  about  Protestantism.  I  do 
my  best  to  think  well  of  it  and  to  work  with  it;  but  it  is 
drearily  unchristian.  .  .  . 

"  I  should  be  disposed  to  ascribe  my  own  failure  to  do 
anything  to  defects  in  my  own  character,  had  I  not  con- 
stantly before  me  the  example  of  my  predecessor,  worth  ten 
of  me,  whose  efforts  seemed  to  come  to  nothing,  because, 
though  he  was  trying  to  do  the  work  of  a  Catholic  Bishop, 
he  was  after  all  only  the  agent  of  a  Protestant  Church, 
which  is  only  somewhat  ironically  '  Episcopal.'  I  see  so 
many  examples  of  the  failing  of  the  work  of  good  men  whose 
stream  of  aspiration  and  energy  was  trying  to  rise  higher 
than  its  source  in  Anglican  history  and  principle.  But 
enough  of  this.  I  am  vehement  and  despondent.  .  .  . 

"  I  am  seriously  considering  whether  it  may  not  be  my 
plain  duty  to  resign  my  jurisdiction  at  General  Convention. 
I  am  a  less  than  half-hearted  Bishop  now;  and  my  diocese 
ought  to  have  one  who  believes  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  I  have  shown  nothing  of  all  this  in  my  diocese; 
but  of  course  it  affects  my  work,  no  matter  how  hard  I  try 
to  ignore  it.  If  it  strikes  you  that  one  in  such  a  frame  of 
mind  ought  not  to  retain  a  position  of  representative  re- 
sponsibility, please  say  so.  I  think  I  should  not  hesitate 
to  remove  myself,  if  it  were  apparently  better  for  the 
diocese." 


ANGLICANISM  107 

April  12,  1913. 

"  Nothing  could  have  been  more  helpful  than  just  what 
you  have  said  and  the  way  you  have  said  it.  Bishop  Hall 
has  been  most  kind  and  useful;  but  even  he,  in  four  days  I 
spent  with  him  in  January,  did  not  do  more  to  restore  my 
balance  than  you  did  in  your  letter.  I  think  I  was  Provi- 
dentially guided  to  open  up  myself  to  you  at  a  time  when 
I  was  in  special  need  of  the  help  you  have  given. 

"  The  letter  I  wrote  you  truthfully  represents  what  I 
have  come  to  feel,  and  still  feel,  although  it  exaggerates 
the  discouraging  side  of  things.  If  I  were  to  state  the  case 
now,  I  should  say  in  substance  precisely  what  I  said  before; 
but  I  should  alter  the  proportion  of  emphasis.  The  thing 
that  seems  to  me  clearest  is  that  the  Catholic  presenta- 
tion of  Christianity  within  the  Anglican  Communion  is  the 
best  thing  discoverable  in  the  Christian  world;  but  the 
thing  most  borne  in  on  me  in  my  work  is  that  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Delaware  constantly 
tends  to  ignore  and  suppress  this,  and  in  so  doing  has  the 
preponderance  of  Anglican  authority  behind  it.  I  am  trying 
to  get  away  from  this  last  conviction  and  may  succeed.  I 
see  plainly  that  Anglican  Catholics  have  been  guilty  of 
exaggeration  in  trying  to  make  out  a  case  for  themselves 
in  claiming  too  much  for  the  Catholic  interpretation  of 
Anglican  history;  and  in  the  rebound  from  unintentional 
exaggeration  of  which  I  have  myself  been  guilty,  I  am 
probably  disposed  to  concede  too  much  to  the  other  side. 
I  have  also  to  be  constantly  reminding  myself  that  my 
feeling  of  general  dissatisfaction  is  more  probably  due  to 
faults  within  myself  than  to  faults  everywhere  in  the  world 
without !  Moreover,  I  need  constantly  to  remind  myself  that 
the  Diocese  of  Delaware  may  not  be  as  typical  of  the 
actual  Anglican  Communion  as  I  am  disposed  to  assume. 

"  1.    I    believe    enthusiastically    in   the   presentation   of 


108  ANGLICANISM 

Christianity  as  it  has  been  taught  me  in  the  Anglican  Church 
as  the  best  approximate  presentation  for  this  country  that 
I  know. 

2.  I  fully  recognize  the  positive  values  of  Protestantism 
in  a  general  way;   but  I  feel  so  strongly  that  the  pre- 
ponderating tendency  is  away  from  the  supernatural,  that 
I  distrust  it  in  all  its  forms.     I  think  that  its  positive  work 
is   practically   done,   and  that  the  chief  thing  now   is  to 
check  its  negations. 

3.  I  have  not  the  least  touch  of  Roman  fever.     Actual 
Rome   repels   me.      Its   uncatholic    features   as   contrasted 
with  what  I  am  familiar  with  in  the  Anglican  Communion 
impress  me  more  than  its  positive  force  and  good  qualities. 
There  are  three  things  which  I  should  specify  particularly: 
the   Jesuit  ethics   with   its   wide-spread   consequences,   the 
lies    about   history    officially   taught,   and   the    addition    of 
dogmas.     Nevertheless,  I  believe  so  firmly  that  Christianity 
is  more  at  the  heart  of  Catholicism  in  any  form,  no  matter 
what  the  disguising  exaggerations,  than  in   any   form  of 
mere  Protestantism,  that  I  should  consider  it  a  Christian 
duty  to  submit  to  Rome's  conditions,  if  there  were  no  other 
Catholic  alternative.     In  France  or  Germany,  I  should  be  a 
Roman  Catholic;  and  I  should  be  in  America,  if  there  were 
no  better  Catholicism  to  turn  to. 

"  The  practical  conclusion  at  which  I  arrive  is  that  it 
seems  to  be  our  first  duty  to  secure  for  the  Church  a  clearly 
Catholic  official  position.  I  do  not  think  we  have  that. 
Our  official  position  is  ambiguous.  If  we  were  plainly 
making  progress  not  in  building  up  a  Catholic  party  but  in 
Catholicizing  the  Church,  I  should  have  no  misgivings  as 
to  where  lay  the  best  hope  for  Christian  America  at  this 
time.  By  that  I  mean  that  with  us  would  lie  the  best  hope 
of  making  a  valuable  contribution  toward  better  things  in 
future.  This  of  course  is  what  I  wish  to  feel  and  hope  to 


ANGLICANISM  109 

feel.  I  have  had  to  go  through  dark  places  of  discourage- 
ment in  work;  but  I  may  come  out  of  them  with  stronger 
and  soberer  faith.  If  so,  it  will  be  largely  due  to  Bishop 
Hall  and  yourself. 

"  I  think  General  Convention  this  year  will  be  of  criti- 
cal importance.  I  am  not  excited  about  change  of  name, 
chiefly  because  that  seems  a  mere  scratching  on  the  surface. 
But  the  discussions  about  name  have  been,  I  think,  useful 
in  getting  people  to  face  facts  and  principles;  and  the 
outcome  may  be  to  make  us  see  more  clearly  just  where 
we  stand.  If  the  Protestants  can  make  a  case  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  Church,  I  think  that  they  will  be  able  to  do 
so  soon.  If  they  can,  that  will  be  a  good  thing.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Church  can  be  made  more  worthy  of  its 
splendidly  Catholic  traditions,  I  believe  that  now  is  a  time 
to  make  important  contributions  toward  that  end.  There 
are  certain  definite  things  that  we  may  be  ready  for,  or 
ready  to  prepare  for. 

"  (1)   Unambiguous  statement  of  the  Real  Presence. 

(2)  Recognition  of  Orders  as  a  Sacrament. 

(3)  Prayers  for  the  Dead. 

(4)  Dropping  of  the  XXXIX  Articles. 

"  I  do  not  regard  this  as  a  sort  of  mere  party  warfare 
within  the  Church  to  the  neglect  of  our  widest  responsibili- 
ties. I  believe  we  can  best  help  the  cause  of  Unity  by 
making  ourselves  exponents  of  the  mystical  side  of  Chris- 
tianity in  this  country  instead  of  leaving  it  all  to  Rome. 
We  shall  do  most  for  our  Presbyterian  and  Methodist 
friends  by  sloughing  our  own  Protestantism.  I  am  not  in 
the  least  disposed  to  ignore  what  we  have  in  common;  but 
we  have  a  special  duty  to  provide  what  they  have  not,  and 
also  to  emphasize  what  we  have  in  common  with  Christians 
on  the  Catholic  side," 


110  ANGLICANISM 

Bishop  Hall  and  Bishop  Brent  encouraged  me  and 
for  the  time  being  quieted  my  misgivings ;  but  I  find 
repetition  of  the  same  thoughts  in  a  letter  to  the  Bishop 
of  Oxford  in  the  following  year  acknowledging  a  copy 
of  his  charge  on  The  Basis  of  Anglican  Fellowship. 

St.  Barnabas'  Day,  1914. 

"  Our  problems  are  different  from  problems  in  England 
in  the  forms  they  take,  though  substantially  they  are  the 
same.  The  Kikuyu  incident  has  not  directly  affected  us; 
but  some  of  our  leading  laymen  are  urging  recognition  of  a 
Federation  of  Churches  in  a  way  that  raises  the  same  issues. 
We  have  our  own  difficulties  on  three  sides.  What  you  have 
said,  and  your  way  of  saying  it,  in  this  instance  as  in  others, 
is  of  great  value  to  us. 

"  Our  Church  is  clearly  on  trial,  more  clearly  than  at 
any  other  time  in  its  history.  There  are  many  indications 
that  it  may  yield  to  Protestant  tendencies  to  lose  grip  on  the 
supernatural,  and  forfeit  its  right  to  claim  identity  in 
principle  with  the  ancient  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
time  of  controversy,  apparently  just  ahead  of  us,  may  issue 
in  clearer  apprehension  of  the  principles  of  the  Faith. 
Some  storms  are  probably  better  for  us  than  the  hazy  calm 
in  which  we  have  been  drifting  about  hitherto.  We  seem  to 
have  failed  to  teach  our  people  as  a  whole  what  the  Creed 
means. 

"  I  often  think  that,  if  I  were  beginning  afresh,  I  should 
be  a  Roman  Catholic,  as  seeming  to  have  in  the  Roman 
Communion  the  best  opportunity,  all  things  considered,  to 
uphold  the  basic  principles  of  Christianity  in  this  country. 
I  cannot  conceive  there  being  no  difficulties;  but  it  seems 
easier  to  tolerate  additions  and  multiplications  than  sub- 
tractions and  divisions,  easier  to  ignore  exaggerations  than 


ANGLICANISM  111 

dilutions !  The  feeling  of  discouragement  at  the  outlook  for 
our  Church  in  America  and  for  my  Diocese  makes  it  pos- 
sible to  appreciate  the  value  of  clear  and  strong  utterances 
such  as  yours." 

My  perplexities  and  ponderings  on  them  in  1912  and 
1913  were  prophetic  intimations  of  my  decisions  seven 
years  later ;  but,  as  I  wrote  the  Bishop  of  Vermont  at 
that  time,  I  was  "  suffering  not  from  Roman  fever,  but 
from  Protestant  chills." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    ENGLISH    REFORMATION 

DURING  1912  and  the  three  years  following,  I  did 
what  reading  I  could  on  the  English  Reformation,  and 
found  it  necessary  to  revise  many  earlier  judgments. 
For  one  thing,  the  practical  necessity  of  knowing  what 
I  could  teach  in  my  diocese  as  having  the  sanction  of 
the  Church's  authority,  led  me  to  ask  afresh,  "  What  is 
the  actual  teaching  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  our 
own,  about  Sacraments?"  For  another,  I  was  set  to 
thinking  along  new  lines  by  Dr.  Gairdner's  Lollardy 
and  the  English  Reformation  and  by  Bishop  and  Gas- 
quet's  Edward  VI  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
the  only  book  by  Roman  Catholic  writers  that  put  new 
notions  into  my  head.  Many  Roman  Catholic  books 
that  I  have  recently  read  have  corroborated,  put  into 
words,  explained  more  fully,  things  that  I  had  been 
finding  out  for  myself;  but,  with  this  one  exception,  the 
opinions  I  now  hold  of  the  Anglican  position  have  been 
derived  solely  from  considering  the  facts  as  I  have 
been  able  to  learn  them  from  sources  and  from  Anglican 
writers.  In  my  teaching  years,  I  always  combated  the 
theory  that  the  English  Reformation  was  to  be  brack- 
eted with  the  Continental  or  the  Scottish,  the  theory 
well  set  forth  in  the  Cambridge  Modern  History.  I 
have  now  come  to  hold  this  as  the  more  correct  inter- 
pretation of  the  facts,  chiefly  owing  to  the  fact  that  I 

in 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         113 

have  made  careful  study  of  the  publications  of  the 
Parker  Society.  The  Anglo-Catholic  version  of  Refor- 
mation facts  cannot  be  squared  with  the  revelations  of 
that  collection  of  weary,  dreary  documents. 

In  writing  Outlines  of  Church  History  for  the  New 
York  Sunday  School  Commission  in  1914,  I  repeated 
the  Catholic  interpretation  of  the  Anglican  position 
which  I  had  always  believed  and  taught,  though  with 
some  modifications:  when  in  1917  I  was  asked  to  do 
another  bit  of  historical  work  on  the  same  period,  I 
had  to  refuse,  as  I  no  longer  felt  that  my  presentation 
of  facts  was  justified,  and  it  was  this  that  I  was  asked 
to  give.  I  have  always  wished  to  face  facts  fairly  and 
interpret  them  cautiously,  never,  I  think,  consciously 
suppressing  or  distorting  them  to  serve  a  partisan  pur- 
pose. It  seems  to  me  that,  in  my  historical  work,  I 
have  always  had  a  sincere  desire  to  get  at  the  truth.  I 
have  wished  to  avoid  the  blinding  influence  of  prejudice 
and  frankly  to  admit  everything  that  told  against  my 
own  contentions.  I  am  quite  certain  of  the  honesty  of 
my  motives :  but  I  have  come  to  see  that  in  many  things 
I  have  been  mistaken,  and  that,  without  knowing  it,  I 
have  let  prejudices  color  my  view  of  facts. 

The  general  view  of  the  English  Reformation  which 
I  believed  to  be  the  true  one,  the  one  given  in  anything 
that  I  have  published,  is  thus  summarized  in  the  Out- 
lines of  Church  History. 

"  The  English  Reformation  is  to  be  carefully  distin- 
guished from  the  Reformation  movements  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe.  The  Saxon  and  Swiss  movements,  inaugurated 


114         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

by  great  individuals,  caused  definite  breaches  with  the  past, 
on  the  assumption  that  Christianity  as  it  existed  in  the 
earliest  days  had  perished  from  the  earth.  The  assumption 
of  Luther,  and  still  more  of  Calvin,  was  that  whatever 
existed  was  more  or  less  wrong,  and  that  the  faith  of  the 
Gospels  could  only  be  proclaimed  as  a  fresh  discovery. 
They  wished  to  be  as  far  as  possible  from  the  religious 
system  of  western  Europe  as  it  existed  in  their  day,  and 
made  little  or  no  pretence  of  preserving  continuity  of  re- 
ligious ideas  and  institutions.  They  wished  to  destroy  and 
build  afresh.  In  England,  however,  the  aim  was  to  adapt 
and  modify.  The  English  Reformation  represents  not  the 
following  of  conspicuous  individuals,  but  the  acts  of  a  na- 
tional Church.  The  Church  of  England,  dating  from  the 
end  of  the  sixth  century,  after  a  thousand  years  of  life  in 
which  it  reflected  all  aspects  of  the  life  of  western  Christen- 
dom, in  the  sixteenth  century  made  certain  important 
changes  in  its  ways,  which  involved  its  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  Christian  world.  It  was  separated  from  the 
communion  of  the  western  Churches  in  communion  with 
Rome ;  yet  it  never  made  such  radical  changes  as  to  identify 
itself  with  the  reformed  bodies  on  the  Continent.  The 
justification  for  its  isolation  has  been  that  this  was  com- 
pelled by  circumstances,  and  that  its  principles  are  such 
as  well  express  the  faith  of  the  primitive  Church  in  a  form 
intelligible  to  the  modern  world.  The  history  of  the  Eng- 
lish Reformation  falls  into  two  periods,  the  first,  150Q-1570, 
during  which  the  Church  of  England  readjusted  its  rela- 
tions toward  the  see  of  Rome;  the  second,  1558-1665,  during 
which  it  determined  its  attitude  toward  the  Puritans."  * 

"  It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  the  English  Reformation  is 
concerned  only  with  the  Church  of  England's  renunciation 

•  Outlines,  p.  51. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         115 

of  the  papal  claims.  The  first  stage  of  the  history  is  con- 
cerned with  this  and  shows  the  abandonment  by  England 
of  the  system  of  Christianity  which  had  prevailed  in  western 
Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  though  the  change  is  one 
of  modification  rather  than  of  destruction.  There  is  a 
second  division  of  the  history  which  clearly  marks  the  dif- 
ference between  the  changes  made  in  England  and  those  that 
had  been  made  in  Germany  and  Switzerland.  The  question 
was  inevitably  raised,  If  England  breaks  with  Rome,  will 
she  not  cast  in  her  lot  with  Wittenberg  or  Geneva?  This 
question  was  given  definite  form,  when  Calvin's  followers 
tried  to  compel  England  to  accept  the  Genevan  system,  as 
Scotland  had  done  at  the  instigation  of  John  Knox.  The 
English  Calvinists  are  those  commonly  known  as  Puritans; 
and  the  history  of  the  English  Church  for  over  a  century 
was  determined  by  her  efforts  to  defend  herself  against 
Puritan  attack."  * 


It  is  perhaps  inevitable  that  one  of  New  England 
antecedents,  always  conscious  of  Puritan  antagonism 
to  "  Prelacy  "  and  all  its  works,  should  think  of  Angli- 
canism more  as  anti-Puritan  than  as  anti-Roman.  Yet 
close  scrutiny  of  the  facts  will  show  that,  in  spite  of  the 
long  war  between  Calvinists  and  Anglicans,  the  differ- 
ences between  them  often  concern  names  rather  than 
things,  and  that  the  conclusion  of  many  of  their  con- 
flicts left  what  was  Puritan  in  substance,  though  tagged 
by  Anglicans  with  an  ancient  name.  In  the  Outlines  of 
Church  History  there  is  one  paragraph  which  marks  a 
great  modification  in  my  earlier  views. 

•  Outlines,  p.  61. 


116         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

"  It  is  to  the  '  Elizabethan  Settlement '  that  the  Anglican 
Communion  owes  a  characteristic  quality,  sometimes  re- 
garded as  an  excellence,  but  more  justly  as  a  weakness. 
This  is  its  habitual  ambiguity.  It  aimed  at  comprehension; 
and  it  ended  in  compromise.  The  practical  object  of 
Elizabethan  Churchmen  was  to  maintain  the  English  Rite 
as  against  both  Papists  and  Puritans  who  wished  to  over- 
throw it,  and  yet  give  it  such  a  form  as  to  ensure  its  use 
by  as  many  as  possible  on  either  side.  More  especially  did 
they  feel  the  need  of  concession  to  the  Puritan  party  as 
being  the  more  aggressive  of  their  opponents.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  they  drew  up  the  Articles  of  Religion 
which  were  susceptible  of  various  interpretations;  and  in 
their  effort  to  be  just  to  different  degrees  of  emphasis  and 
different  aspects  of  generally  accepted  truths,  they  too  often 
tried  to  harmonize  utterly  incompatible  views  and  involved 
themselves  in  contradictions.  Principle  yielded  to  policy; 
alleged  charity  sacrificed  sincerity.  The  habit  of  non- 
committal evasiveness  formed  by  the  Church  of  England  at 
this  time  has  been  a  great  drawback  to  its  usefulness;  and 
Anglicans  have  justly  been  charged  with  incoherence  in 
teaching  and  inconsistence  in  practice.  It  is  characteristic 
of  the  English  people  to  avoid  clear  statement  of  principles 
through  confidence  in  the  ultimate  success  of  a  policy  of 
muddle.  This  has  impressed  itself  on  English  Church  his- 
tory." * 

In  teaching  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  the  line  I 
took  was  always  something  like  this.  The  mediaeval 
Church  was  fascinating  in  many  ways ;  it  was  not  as 
black  as  it  has  been  painted,  not  hopelessly  corrupt, 
though  grown  very  worldly:  yet  it  represented  but 

*  Outlines,  p.  65  f . 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         117 

transient  phases  of  Christian  development,  had  out- 
grown its  usefulness,  on  the  whole  deserved  to  be  super- 
seded. Its  characteristic  products,  scholastic  theology, 
and  the  Papal  system,  were  purely  mediaeval,  with  me- 
diaeval limitations,  and  could  not  be  altogether  justi- 
fied either  by  primitive  standards  or  by  modern  needs. 
Change  was  inevitable  and  desirable.  The  Reformation, 
like  all  periods  of  transition,  was  marked  by  violence 
and  destruction.  The  Reformers  were  without  excep- 
tion unattractive  characters,  some  of  them  detestable. 
On  the  Continent,  religious  change  took  the  form  of 
radical  departure  from  primitive  Christian  principle 
and  cannot  be  defended.  Yet  in  England  there  was  no 
sacrifice  of  essentials,  though  there  were  many  deplor- 
able changes,  and  a  succession  of  unlovely  leaders. 
Henry  VIII  was  a  brute,  Cranmer  a  poltroon,  the  Privy 
Council  of  Edward  VI  unscrupulous  thieves,  Elizabeth 
an  accomplished  liar,  her  divines  for  the  most  part  a 
sorry  lot.  The  only  heroic  figures  were  some  of  the 
martyrs  for  the  Old  Religion  like  Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir 
Thomas  More,  though  there  were  many  good  too  among 
upholders  of  the  New  Religion  such  as  Latimer,  more 
respectable  than  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  and  such  Eliza- 
bethans as  Jewel,  Hooker,  and  Andrewes.  The  seven- 
teenth century  was  somewhat  better,  with  saintly  char- 
acters among  the  Caroline  divines,  though  it  is  not 
possible  to  be  altogether  enthusiastic  over  the  martyrs, 
King  Charles  and  Laud.  It  was  not  an  alluring  record ; 
yet,  on  the  whole,  represented  necessary  and  desirable 
change,  its  characteristic  product  and  justification  be- 
ing the  Prayer  Book.  In  the  Liberal  Catholicism  of  the 


118         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

English  Church  was  to  be  found  the  best  guarantee  of 
adherence  to  Catholic  principle  and  of  a  basis  for  the 
reunion  of  the  Christian  world. 

I  began  by  assuming  the  approximate  goodness  of 
Anglicanism,  and  ended  by  teaching  this  as  an  histori- 
cal conclusion,  failing  to  see  that  my  conclusion  was 
drawn  from  the  presupposition,  not  the  facts.  I  saw 
the  unsatisfactory  character  of  these  and  tried  truth- 
fully to  state  them,  yet  tried  to  deduce  from  them  more 
than  they  warrant.  Gasquet  pricked  the  bubble  of  my 
illusions.  I  know  of  no  writer  who  more  clearly  calls 
attention  to  the  truth  concerning  certain  aspects  of  the 
English  Reformation.  While,  in  one  sense,  I  have 
learned  little  from  him,  since  his  general  presentation 
of  the  facts  is  merely  what  any  of  my  old  pupils  would 
recognize  as  substantially  identical  with  that  which  I 
gave  myself  in  seminary  lectures;  yet  I  owe  more  to 
him  than  to  any  other  writer  for  corroboration  of  what 
I  held  tentatively,  for  completion  of  what  I  only  knew 
in  part,  and  for  putting  me  in  the  way  of  finding  for 
myself  the  discrepancy  between  the  actual  history  and 
the  conclusions  which  I  wished  to  draw  from  it. 

It  was  in  consequence  of  fresh  studies  stimulated  by 
the  recent  reading  of  Gairdner  and  Gasquet,  that  in 
June  1912  I  wrote  a  paper  for  a  clerical  Conference 
at  St.  Mary's  School,  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  on 
Anglican  Ambiguity,  in  which  I  pointed  in  detail  the 
twofold  aspect  of  Anglican  teaching  about  the  Eucha- 
rist and  Orders.  The  paper  began  with  the  sentence, 
"  The  subject  of  this  paper  is  irritating,  as  is  appro- 
priate, as  its  purpose  is  to  call  attention  to  facts  more 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         119 

than  irritating  to  those  who  make  strong  claims  for  the 
Catholicity  of  the  Anglican  Church  " ;  and  its  conclu- 
sion was : 

"We  need  more  clearly  to  apprehend,  or  to  determine 
afresh,  what  our  principles  are,  and  then  plainly  avow  them. 
We  need  to  remember  that  lukewarmness  results  not  only 
from  being  neither  cold  nor  hot,  but  also  from  being  both 
cold  and  hot  at  the  same  time.  Whether  it  comes  by  nega- 
tion or  by  double  assertion,  lukewarmness  in  the  Church  is  a 
vice,  and  the  penalty  decreed  against  it  is  rejection.  There 
is  among  us  too  much  saying  Yea  and  Nay  together.  Yet 
St.  Paul  reminds  us :  'As  God  is  true,  our  word  toward  you 
was  not  Yea  and  Nay.  For  the  Son  of  God,  Jesus  Christ, 
Who  was  preached  among  you  by  us,  was  not  Yea  and  Nay: 
but  in  Him  was  Yea.  For  all  the  promises  of  God  in  Him 
are  Yea,  and  in  Him  Amen,  unto  the  glory  of  God  by  us.' 
(II  Cor.  1:18-20.)  This  means  among  other  things  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  make  clear  statements  of 
positive  truth.  It  is  well  for  us  to  consider  these  things, 
because  it  rests  with  us  to  try  to  rid  our  Church  and  Com- 
munion of  an  incoherence  in  teaching  on  some  points,  which 
has  given  ground  for  not  undeserved  reproach." 

This  paper  of  1912  indicates  the  lines  along  which 
my  mind  was  to  work  for  several  years  to  come.  At 
that  time,  I  felt  that  the  Anglican  teaching  about  Sac- 
raments was  sound  enough,  and  unmistakable  if  one 
would  study  the  Prayer  Book ;  but  I  recognized  the 
"  double  witness  "  of  history  and  formularies,  and  felt 
that  the  doubtfulness  on  various  points  should  be  re- 
moved. I  felt  that  much  of  the  ambiguity  was  acci- 
dental and  unintentional,  something  belonging  to  the 


120         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

Church's  outward  life,  not  to  its  inner  spirit.  Seven 
years  later,  I  came  to  regard  this  as  proof  that  the 
Church  had  no  clear  principles  as  distinct  from  its  ob- 
scure policies,  and  that  in  the  matter  of  Sacraments  not 
to  affirm  traditional  teaching  was  virtually  to  deny  it. 
In  1912,  however,  I  should  have  had  hopes  of  gain 
through  Prayer  Book  revision  which  later  were  entirely 
lost. 

In  July  1913,  I  had  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures 
before  a  conference  of  church  workers  held  at  the  Cathe- 
dral of  St.  John  the  Divine,  New  York.  I  wished  to  in- 
clude the  paper  on  Ambiguity  read  in  Raleigh;  but  I 
showed  it  to  my  friend  Dr.  Manning,  who  did  not  wish 
me  to  read  it.  Yielding  to  his  insistence  I  gave  up  my 
intention,  and  overnight  wrote  a  paper  on  Sacramental 
Character,  which  appears  as  the  third  of  the  four  lec- 
tures, printed  shortly  after  under  the  title  Catholic  and 
Protestant. 

In  1915,  a  discussion  arose  about  the  Church's  par- 
ticipation in  the  Panama  Conference;  and  partly  for 
the  sake  of  backing  up  some  of  my  friends  who  were 
under  fire,  and  partly  for  the  sake  of  letting  my  diocese 
know  my  attitude  on  certain  proposed  policies  of  the 
Church,  I  published  a  Charge  to  the  Delaware  Clergy 
on  The  Issues  before  the  Church.  In  this  I  stated  my 
position  as  carefully  as  I  could,  and  in  an  appendix  in- 
cluded much  of  the  substance  of  the  paper  on  Am- 
biguity to  illustrate  certain  historical  points.  To  my- 
self this  Charge  represented  an  effort  to  test  the  tena- 
bility  of  my  own  position.  I  remember  saying  to  my- 
self when  it  came  out,  "  Ballon  d'essai"  In  it  I  let  my 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          121 

diocese  know,  as  I  felt  it  was  entitled  to  know,  where  I 
stood,  although  I  knew  my  views  would  not  be  popular ; 
but  as  it  served  to  define  my  position  for  the  time  and 
two  years  to  come,  it  gave  me  more  satisfaction  as  a 
straightforward  record  of  my  position  than  anything 
else  I  had  published. 

The  object  of  this  pamphlet  was  to  urge  a  clear- 
headed and  firm  stand  for  the  Anglo-Catholic  position; 
yet,  as  contrasted  with  earlier  utterances  such  as  my 
first  Charge  to  my  diocese,  it  shows  that  I  had  come 
to  regard  this  as  tentative,  rather  than  as  obviously  as- 
sured, and  to  face  the  possibility  that  the  Church  might 
in  practice  repudiate  it. 

"  Panama  is  the  South  American  way,  and  Kikuyu  the 
Central  African  way,  of  propounding  the  same  query:  Is 
the  Anglican  Communion  Protestant  or  Catholic?  It  is 
strange  that  a  great  religious  body  should  so  frequently  be 
perplexed  as  to  its  own  identity,  and  seem  to  be  the  victim 
of  ecclesiastical  aphasia.  The  root  of  the  trouble  b'es  in  the 
constitutional  ambiguity  of  Anglicanism;  and  until  this  be 
treated  by  some  drastic  remedies,  we  must  expect  frequent 
attacks  of  the  same  malady.  The  necessity  of  clearer  defini- 
tion of  principles  seems  to  be  forced  upon  us ;  and  clearer 
definition  of  any  sort  ought  in  some  way  to  add  to  the 
effectiveness  of  the  Church."  * 

"  Too  long  has  Anglicanism  rested  on  '  the  Elizabethan 
Settlement,'  which  was  quite  the  reverse  of  a  settlement, 
being  no  more  than  a  workable  makeshift  adopted  in  a 
troubled  time,  the  ecclesiastical  counterpart  of  the  politic 

*  U8W8,  p,  10, 


122         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

coquetry  habitually  practiced  by  the  Virgin  Queen.  We 
have  been  coquetting  long  enough ;  it  is  time  to  declare  our 
serious  intentions.  ...  We  have  inherited  a  general 
position  in  which  we  believe  as  approximately  truthful  and 
as  relatively  useful;  we  must  develop  it  and  improve  on  it 
if  we  can.  One  of  its  defects  is  uncertainty.  Now  is  a 
time  when  something  may  be  done  to  get  rid  of  this. 

"  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  we  get  away  from  the 
old  policy  of  trying  to  assent  to  everything,  of  trying  to 
agree  with  everybody,  even  in  cases  of  views  directly  op- 
posed. The  double  witness  does  not  stand  searching  tests 
for  us  any  more  than  for  Lear.  '  To  say  "  ay  "  and  "  no  " 
to  everything  I  said !  "  Ay  "  and  "  no  "  too  was  no  good 
divinity.  When  the  rain  came  to  wet  me  once  and  the  wind 
to  make  me  chatter,  when  the  thunder  would  not  peace  at 
my  bidding,  there  I  found  them  out,  there  I  smelt  them  out. 
Go  to ;  they  are  not  men  of  their  words ;  they  told  me  I  was 
everything;  'tis  a  lie.  I  am  not  ague-proof.'  Considered 
merely  as  policy,  straightforwardness  and  sincerity  are  bet- 
ter than  non-committal  evasiveness  and  amiable  duplicity."  * 

"  I  have  stated  that  a  more  definite  declaration  of  princi- 
ples either  way  would  be  a  good  thing  for  the  Anglican  Com- 
munion. My  main  object  is  to  urge  that  the  definitions 
ought  to  take  the  form  of  demonstrating  more  plainly  her 
right  to  claim  a  position  among  the  Catholic  communions 
of  the  Christian  world.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing  eccentric 
in  the  Catholic  interpretation  of  the  Anglican  position.  It 
has  not  only  always  been  tolerated,  but  is,  if  we  think  seri- 
ously, the  only  one  that  is  really  tolerable.  ...  If  I 
differ  from  others,  it  would  be  merely  in  the  conviction  that 
it  ought  to  be  more  unequivocally  asserted  in  the  formularies 

•Issues,  p.  12 f. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          123 

and  practices  of  the  Church.  Many  think  the  old  easy- 
going, non-committal  policy  a  good  one.  I  don't.  Many 
think  it  not  desirable  that  there  should  be  a  clearer  avowal 
of  principles.  I  do.  I  believe  that  we  can  only  do  useful 
service  in  the  development  of  American  Christianity,  if  we 
take  strong  and  consistent  stand  on  Catholic  ground.  To 
take  a  more  definite  stand — either  on  Catholic  or  Protestant 
ground — would  doubtless  cause  some  present  inconvenience, 
quite  probably  loss  of  adherents.  Yet  is  is  better  to  stick  to 
principles  and  let  consequences  take  care  of  themselves: 
in  the  long  run  we  and  our  work  will  be  gainers  by 
straightforwardness."  * 

"  There  is  some  ground  for  the  charge  that  Anglicanism  is 
nondescript  Christianity,  neither  fish,  flesh,  nor  fowl,  but  a 
sort  of  bat  in  the  ecclesiastical  firmament,  with  a  bat's 
proverbial  limitations  of  vision."  f 

While  at  this  time,  in  thinking  of  policies  of  the 
Church,  I  was  constantly  harping  on  sins  and  disad- 
vantages of  "  ambiguity,"  in  my  historical  studies  I  was 
thinking  chiefly  of  Anglican  "  continuity."  Gasquet 
had  suggested  pertinent  subjects  for  meditation;  and 
even  before  I  read  his  Edward  VI  and  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  I  had  had  misgivings  about  "  continuity  " 
suggested  under  circumstances  when  I  should  least  have 
expected  them. 

During  the  winter  of  1911,  I  made  a  three  weeks' 
visit  to  England,  the  special  object  of  which  was  to  re- 
ceive an  honorary  Doctorate  of  Divinity  from  the  Uni- 

*  Issues,  p.  4  f. 
\Ibid.,  p.  54. 


124.         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

versity  of  Oxford.*  I  was  immensely  pleased  with  the 
degree,  had  a  delightful  visit  in  Oxford  as  guest  of 
the  Warden  of  Keble,  and  later  paid  visits  to  the  Bishop 
of  Salisbury  (Dr.  Wordsworth),  to  the  Bishop  of  Bir- 
mingham (Dr.  Gore),  to  Mrs.  Creighton  at  Hampton 
Court  Palace,  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
(Dr.  Davidson)  at  Lambeth,  where  I  had  a  long  talk 
with  the  Archbishop  on  the  proposed  World  Confer- 
ence on  Faith  and  Order,  and  saw  much  of  the  Bishop 
of  Oxford  (Dr.  Paget).  It  was  the  most  interesting 
three  weeks  I  ever  spent,  filled  with  pleasant  experi- 
ences, all  tending  to  make  me  thankful  for  my  connec- 
tion with  the  Church  of  England,  and  suggesting  pos- 
sibilities of  useful  and  delightful  contact  in  future. 

•  Dr.  Ince,  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity,  whose  official  duty 
it  would  have  been  to  present  for  the  Divinity  degree,  had 
recently  died;  and  his  successor,  Dr.  Scott  Holland,  had  not 
yet  come  into  residence.  It  became  therefore  the  duty  of  the 
Regius  Professor  of  Pastoral  Theology,  Dr.  Ottley,  to  act  as 
presenter;  and  as  he  had  been  Principal  of  the  Pusey  House 
when  I  lived  there,  this  was  specially  pleasant  for  me.  His 
presentation  was  made  in  the  following  words: 

"  Insignissime  Vice-Cancellarie  vosque  egregii  procuratores : 
Mos  nobis  pro  lege  est  ut  alumnos,  in  episcopatum  elevates, 
summo  honoris  academici  gradu  ornemus.  Jucundiore  autem 
affectu  eos  amplectimur  qui  nobis  non  civitate  quidem,  verum 
affinitatis  et  amicitiae  vinculis,  arctissime  conjuncti  sunt. 

"  Egregius  hie  praesul  quern  vobis  (absente  Sacrae  Theo- 
logiae  professore  regio)  praesento,  ortu  Americanus,  apud  suos 
liberalibus  artibus  puer  institutus,  postea  collegio  Keblensi 
apud  nos  commensalis  ascriptus  est.  Deinde  in  patriam 
reversus,  et  sacris  ordinibus  initiatus,  in  diocesi  Massachutiensi 
curam  pastoralem  exercuit;  post  aliquot  annos  in  seminario 
theologico  apud  Novum  Eboracum  historiae  ecclesiasticae  pro- 
fessor constitutus  est.  In  quo  munere  ita  se  strenuum  et  ec- 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         125 

Yet  to  this  visit,  when  I  was  least  expecting  such  im- 
pressions, belonged  certain  uncomfortable  thoughts  of 
the  breaking  of  Catholic  continuity  at  the  English  Ref- 
ormation. In  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  noting  the  incon- 
gruity of  the  surplice  as  vestment  for  a  celebrant  in 
such  a  place,  I  was  set  to  thinking  of  the  significance 
of  the  abolition  of  Eucharistic  Vestments  ;  the  portraits 
at  Lambeth  set  me  thinking  of  the  historical  signifi- 
cance of  "  magpie  " ;  in  Lincoln  Cathedral,  and  again 
at  York,  I  was  struck  by  the  inadequacy  of  the  modern 
rite  of  Holy  Communion,  and  much  more  of  Evensong, 
to  make  use  of  the  magnificent  minsters  built  by  monks 
for  the  Mass ;  in  Durham  I  meditated  on  the  "  Nine 
Altars,"  and  in  Edinburgh  felt  how  the  Scottish  Kirk, 


clesiae  fructuosum  exhibuit,  ut  tribus  abhinc  annis  ad  epis- 
copatum  ascitus,  diocesi  Delavarensi  sit  praepositus.  Neque 
tamen  inter  episcopatus  ardua  officia  et  multiplices  euros 
priora  studia  omisit.  Immo  librum  recenter  conscripsit  in  quo 
de  Anglicanae  ecclesiae  juribus,  doctrina,  disciplinae  ratione, 
perite  disputabatur.  Itaque  jure  optimo  auguramur  nullo 
hunc  loco  ecclesiae  defuturum:  neque  in  consilns  de  salute 
eius  capiendis,  neque  in  ministerii  labonbus  vinliter  per- 
ferendis. 

"  Academia  nostra  regnorum,  gentium,  civitatum  diversi- 
tates  nescit.  Quod  Pencles  ille  de  Athenis  suis,  id  de  Oxonia 
nostra  affirmare  ausim :  avuPaivfi  rjulv  w6ev  o'tuciorlpy  Ttj  d^o'/.avasi 

rd  avrov  ayaQd  yiv6u.eva  KapirovaQai  ij  nat  rd  TUV  a%%uv  avOptrrran/    [Tliu- 

cydides  2,  28].  Ne  ergo  nation!  et  genti  amplissimae,  e  stirpe 
nostra  oriundae ;  ne  ecclesiae  f raterni  nobis  vinculo  amons  con- 
junctae;  ne  nostro  denique  alumno,  militiam  Christi  strenue 
gerenti,  pignus  quantulumcunque  benevolentiae  mostrae  et 
caritatis  desit:  praesento  vobis  praesulem  reverendissimum 
Fredericum  Josephum  Kinsman,  artium  magistrum,  ut  admit- 
tatur  ad  gradum  Doctoris  in  sacra  Theologia  honoris  causa." 


126         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

by  its  possession  of  the  mediaeval  churches,  suggests  a 
superficial  continuity  with  the  mediaeval  Church  com- 
parable to  that  in  the  Church  of  England. 

It  was  suggestions  made  by  this  visit  that  account 
for  comments  on  "  continuity  "  to  be  found  in  papers 
written  in  1912  and  1913. 

"  The  Church  of  England's  possession  of  the  ancient 
churches  and  revenues  gives  a  semblance  of  continuity  not 
wholly  in  accord  with  facts.  Continuity  of  buildings  does 
not  prove  continuity  of  principle.  Consider  the  significance 
of  '  The  Nine  Altars  '  of  Durham  Cathedral.  The  '  Nine 
Altars  '  were,  I  believe,  erected  in  the  thirteenth  century  and 
dedicated  to  the  memories  of  some  of  the  finest  of  the 
Northumbrian  saints.  They  may  have  succeeded  nine  altars 
earlier  still.  At  any  rate,  from  the  thirteenth  century  until 
the  twentieth  there  have  always  been  'Nine  Altars  '  in  the 
east  end  of  Durham  Cathedral.  There  has  been  absolutely 
no  break  in  continuity  of  name.  This  nominal  permanence 
sometimes  blinds  people  to  the  fact  that  a  clear  distinction 
must  nevertheless  be  drawn  between  the  centuries  during 
which  there  were  nine  actual  altars,  daily  used  for  celebra- 
tions of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  and  the  three  centuries  during 
which  there  have  been  but  nine  holes  in  the  surrounding 
walls !  Continuity  of  walls  and  of  name  must  not  obscure 
the  fact  that  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  nine  altars  were 
smashed,  and  that  in  the  twentieth  they  have  not  been  re- 
stored. The  '  Nine  Altars  '  of  Durham  illustrate  by  parable 
the  actual  condition  of  many  things  in  the  Anglican  Church. 

"  There  has  been  over-emphasis  on  '  continuity '  by 
writers  on  English  Church  history.  It  was  long  popularly 
supposed  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  wholly 
abolished  in  England  in  order  that  a  brand-new  Protestant 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         127 

Church  might  be  set  up  in  its  place.  To  combat  this  fallacy 
ecclesiastical  writers  have  rung  the  changes  on  '  continuity.' 
Some  curiously  have  urged  that  the  Church  of  England  was 
very  Protestant  all  through  the  Middle  Ages  and  that,  ap- 
parently in  consequence,  she  must  be  regarded  as  having 
been  very  Catholic  ever  since !  Neither  contention  is  borne 
out  by  facts."  * 

It  was  not  only  on  this  English  visit  that  I  had 
thoughts  of  the  unsatisfactory  significance  of  "  the 
episcopal  habit  "  at  times  when  I  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  hold  it  in  veneration.  In  February  1909,  I 
had  been  Bishop  but  a  few  months,  was  still  conscious 
of  my  "  robes  "  as  indicating  the  apostolic  office,  and 
had  just  been  presented  to  the  House  of  Bishops.  The 
Bishops  were  assembled  in  Calvary  Church,  New  York, 
for  the  Eucharist  which  preceded  the  election  of  Bishops 
for  Wyoming  and  western  Colorado.  As  I  watched 
the  Presiding  Bishop  and  his  assistants  flitting  like 
white-winged  bats  about  the  dim  sanctuary,  I  saw  for 
the  first  time  how  grotesque  the  English  "  episcopal 
habit "  is,  and  was  set  to  thinking  what  the  changes 
from  copes,  mitres,  and  Eucharistic  Vestments  to 
chimeres  and  balloon  sleeves  meant.  Not  then,  but 
later,  I  came  to  think  of  it  not  merely  as  a  sign  of 
poor  taste,  but  as  indication  of  an  actual  change  in  the 
conception  of  episcopate  and  priesthood.  Priests -di- 
vested themselves  of  the  symbols  of  the  unique  and  sacri- 
ficial character  of  the  Mass,  Bishops  of  the  symbols  of 
spiritual  authority.  The  latter  for  the  sake  of  not 

*  Issues,  p.  24  f . 


128         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

seeming  to  arrogate  authority  over  King  and  laity,  and 
also  for  the  sake  of  conciliating  Protestants,  invested 
themselves  in  quasi-Genevan  gloom.  The  garb  of  Cran- 
mer  and  Ridley  was  the  badge  of  Anglican  subservience 
to  civil  authority  and  to  Puritan  prejudice.  I  came 
ultimately  to  dislike  my  episcopal  vestments,  not  be- 
cause they  were  ugly,  but  because  of  their  historical 
significance.  I  wore  them,  and  wished  to  wear  them, 
because  the  Church  had  put  me  into  them;  and  I  did 
not  wish  to  assume  anything  other  than  what  was  of- 
ficially given  me.  But  I  always  felt  that  they  adver- 
tised the  fact  that,  though  I  was  called  "  Bishop,"  I 
was  not  one  of  the  same  kind  as  those  of  ancient  days. 
Yet  this  did  not  indicate  special  regard  for  externals 
as  such,  merely  that  I  felt  that  these  particular  ex- 
ternals plainly  signified  a  fact  to  be  deplored. 

The  change  in  vestments  was  a  minor  matter,  though 
illustrating  a  great  one.  As  I  came  eventually  to  feel 
that  in  the  English  Reformation  there  had  been  real 
breaches  in  the  continuity  of  what  was  essential  to  the 
Catholicity  of  the  Church,  I  considered  chiefly:  (1) 
changes  involved  in  the  recognition  of  Royal  Suprem- 
acy, (2)  changes  in  the  Ordinal,  (3)  changes  in  the 
Mass,  and  incidentally  (4)  the  obscuration  of  Penance, 
and  (5)  change  in  what  constituted  "  the  mind  of  the 
Church."  My  first  concern  with  these  was  not  to  relate 
them  to  Roman  claims,  but  to  ancient  principles  as 
they  would  now  be  interpreted  by  the  Eastern  Church. 
I  came  to  recognize  that  the  burden  of  responsibility 
for  the  Anglican  schism  must  be  placed  on  Cranmer, 
Henry  VIII,  and  Elizabeth,  and  although,  at  the  time 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         129 

of  the  publication  of  Outlines  of  Church  History,  I 
still  held  to  my  old  belief  that  the  Anglican  Churches 
constitute  a  "  Catholic  Communion,"  by  1917  I  had 
ceased  to  bracket  them  with  Easterns  and  Old  Catho- 
lics, but  rather  with  the  Danish  Church  and  Scottish 
Kirk,  and,  for  especially  close  parallels,  with  the 
Church  in  Sweden. 

I  had  always  insisted  strongly  that  Henry  VIII  was 
merely  an  "  occasion,"  not  a  "  cause." 

"  The  actual  question  raised  by  discussion  of  '  the  King's 
Matter  '  was  whether  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  court 
was  not  independent  in  a  certain  respect  of  the  Pope.  The 
criticism  which  resulted  from  the  raising  of  this  question 
led  to  a  readjustment  of  all  existing  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions. The  nature  of  this  criticism  in  raising  new  standards, 
or  in  restoring  old  standards,  of  authority  is  the  significant 
fact  of  the  whole  incident.  The  chief  importance  of  the 
royal  rebellion  against  the  Pope  was  that  it  afforded  no 
opportunity  for  the  free  play  of  the  spirit  of  the  New 
Learning."  * 

"  Henry's  motives  and  methods  of  conducting  his  quarrel 
were  bad ;  but  the  historical  examination  of  the  papal  claims 
resulting  from  his  wish  showed  quite  plainly  that  the  papal 
claims  as  they  had  existed  from  the  eleventh  century  or  even! 
earlier,  represented  not,  as  was  generally  supposed,  part  of 
the  original  institution  of  Christianity,  but  an  ecclesiastical 
and  political  development,  the  stages  of  which  could  be 
clearly  traced."  f 

*  Anglicanism,  p.  16. 
t  Outlines,  p.  55. 


130         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

Yet  though  I  tried  to  thrust  responsibility  for  the 
English  schism  on  Hildebrand,  I  held  no  brief  for 
Henry.  "  Henry  overthrew  the  papal  tyranny  not  in 
the  interests  of  fuller  liberty  for  the  Church,  but  that 
he  might  establish  a  royal  tyranny  more  intolerable 
still.  In  matters  of  discipline  he  acted  as  his  own  Pope, 
and  by  various  arbitrary  acts  oppressed  the  Church."  * 

I  wished  to  see  the  spirit  of  the  English  Reformation 
especially  embodied  in  Erasmus  (  !),  but  ultimately  had 
to  admit  that  there  is  no  getting  away  from  Anne 
Boleyn.  The  brutality  of  her  husband  and  caprices  of 
her  daughter  forced  revolutionary  change  on  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  I  should  now  admit  the  accuracy  of  Cob- 
bett's  violent  statement  that  "  the  Reformation  was 
engendered  in  lust,  brought  forth  in  hypocrisy  and 
perfidy,  and  cherished  and  fed  by  plunder,  devastation, 
and  by  rivers  of  innocent  English  and  Irish  blood." 

1.  I  never  accepted  the  partisan  view  that  there  was 
no  separation  of  England  from  Catholic  unity  until 
Pius  V  excommunicated  Elizabeth,  thereby  making 
Rome  schismatic  by  breaking  from  the  centre  of  the 
Church  represented  by  England !  Yet  believing  in  the 
untenability  of  papal  claims  and  the  dangers  of  Curial 
politics,  I  felt  there  was  a  strong  case  for  the  English 
position.  Recently  I  have  more  fairly  faced  the  facts. 
The  simple  truth  is  that  the  provinces  of  Canterbury 
and  York,  under  compulsion  of  the  English  King,  cut 
themselves  loose  from  Catholic  Christendom,  and  more 
and  more,  partly  by  choice,  more  as  victims  of  violence, 

*  Anglicanism,  p.  16. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         131 

assimilated  themselves  to  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic 
standards.  The  plea  of  conformity  to  primitive  stand- 
ards did  not  alter  the  wilfulness  of  the  separation. 

Schism  is  the  voluntary  isolation  of  superior  per- 
sons, and  hence  was  an  easy  sin  for  those  endowed  with 
insular  complacence.  There  was  plenty  of  this  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  As  the  Venetian  ambassador  wrote 
home :  "  The  English  are  great  lovers  of  themselves  and 
of  everything  belonging  to  them ;  they  think  that  there 
are  no  other  men  but  themselves  and  no  other  world 
but  England,  and  whenever  they  see  a  handsome  for- 
eigner they  say,  *  he  looks  like  an  Englishman,'  or  that 
'  it  is  a  great  pity  he  should  not  be  an  Englishman.' 
When  they  partake  of  any  delicacy  with  a  foreigner 
they  ask  him  '  whether  such  a  thing  is  made  in  his  coun- 
try.' "  *  Henry  VIII  forced  the  Church  of  England  to 
separate  itself  from  Catholic  Christendom  because  he 
wanted  to  marry  Anne  Boleyn ;  the  Privy  Council  per- 
sisted in  separation  because  they  wanted  excuses  for 
plunder;  Elizabeth  made  the  breach  final  to  ensure  her 
own  possession  of  the  throne:  eventually  the  English 
people  accepted  the  religion,  adopted  from  royal  pob'cy 
and  enforced  by  parliamentary  forms,  as  their  own  and 
believed  in  it  on  the  assumption  of  the  superiority  of 
everything  English.  It  is  impossible  not  to  concede  that 
insular  complacence  is  the  genius  of  Anglicanism. 

In  spite  of  all  temptations,  that  belong  to  other  nations, 

He  remains  an  Englishman: 
And  by  magnifying  smirches,  that  attach  to  other  churches, 

He  persists  an  Anglican. 
•  Quoted  in  Gasquet :  England  under  the  Old  Religion,  p.  19. 


132         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

On  two  occasions  the  Bishop  of  North  Carolina  (Dr. 
Cheshire)  put  to  me  the  question,  "  Is  there  any  war- 
rant in  history  for  National  Churches?  "  That  is  for 
the  National  Church  as  the  embodiment  of  Catholic 
unity.  This  is  not  only  the  Anglican,  but  also  largely 
an  Eastern  assumption.  The  principle  Cuius  regio, 
eius  religio  has  a  large  background  and  much  historical 
illustration :  but  analysis  of  its  applications  will  usually 
show  clearly  that  "  national  Churches  "  are  political 
schisms.  As  arguments  against  papal  supremacy,  I 
had  always  favorably  regarded  signs  of  national 
independence  in  France  and  Spain  as  well  as  in 
England  and  the  East:  but  I  now  see  how  in  all 
these  there  are  elements  of  aggression  by  secular  au- 
thority and  obvious  loss  of  spiritual  freedom  for  the 
Church. 

The  authority  exercised  by  the  Pope  in  England,  as 
elsewhere  in  the  West,  consisted  chiefly  of  two  things: 
the  Pope  instituted  all  Bishops,  and  the  Pope  was 
supreme  Ecclesiastical  Judge.  If,  in  repudiating  papal 
supremacy,  effort  had  been  made  to  recognize  that  ulti- 
mate authority  for  doctrine  and  jurisdiction  rested  with 
the  episcopate  as  a  whole,  there  would  have  been  ap- 
proximate agreement  with  the  Eastern  assumption  of 
the  ultimate  authority  of  a  General  Council.  This  was 
not  done.  Elizabeth  had  her  Parliament  pass  an  Act 
depriving  the  Pope  of  these  powers  in  England ;  and  she 
annexed  them  to  the  Crown.  She  made  herself  supreme 
judge  in  ecclesiastical  matters  by  causing  appeals  from 
the  Archbishop's  court  to  be  made  to  the  Crown,  and 
made  the  Crown  also  source  of  jurisdiction  t)y  assum* 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         133 

ing  the  right  to  overrule  the  special  authority  of  the 
Archbishop  in  case  of  his  refusal  to  consecrate  a  royal 
nominee.  The  royal  assumption  of  being  source  of 
jurisdiction  appears  plainly  in  the  forms  of  the  letters 
patent  granted  to  colonial  Bishops.* 

In  this  there  was  a  distinct  breach  in  continuity  of 
ecclesiastical  principle.  Hitherto  spiritual  jurisdiction 
had  had  a  spiritual  source.  This  principle  had  been 
vindicated  in  the  various  controversies  over  investiture. 
It  is  distinct  from  the  special  applications  of  it  in  the 
papal  system,  and  to  contravene  it  is  subversive  of  any 
theory  of  the  Church  as  hierarchical,  of  episcopacy  no 
less  than  of  papacy.  Continental  Protestantism  in 
various  ways  combated  the  hierarchical  principle;  this 
was  done  in  England  by  Royal  Supremacy.  Not  that 
effort  was  not  made  in  appearance  to  protect  it.  The 
sovereign,  as  "  Supreme  Head "  or  "  Supreme  Gov- 
ernor "  of  the  Church,  disclaimed  such  spiritual  author- 
ity as  would  be  indicated  in  the  administration  of 
Sacraments.  He  was  merely  "  a  supreme  civil  power 
over  all  persons  and  causes  in  temporal  things,  and 
over  the  temporal  accidents  of  spiritual  things,"  "  a 
Churchman  acting  Churchmanly."  It  may  be  that  ef- 
forts were  made  to  safeguard  principle  in  the  matter  of 
jurisdiction ;  but  whatever  the  theory,  the  fact  was  that 
the  ancient  customs  did  not  prevail.  Assuming  that 
the  papacy  represented  usurpation  of  authority  over 
the  episcopate,  this  was  not  cured  by  transferring  the 
usurped  authority  to  the  Crown,  even  though  there  was 

•  See  discussion  of  this  point  in  Allies :  See  of  Peter, 
Chap.  VI. 


134         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

by  acquiescence,  a  virtual  abdication  on  the  part  of  the 
newly-imposed  episcopate.  Papal  supremacy  at  the 
most  represented  disproportionate  application  of  an 
ecclesiastical  principle  true  in  itself;  Royal  Supremacy 
represented  its  overthrow.  Regulation  of  the  Church 
by  the  State,  "  establishment "  with  necessary  accom- 
modations for  the  sake  of  co-operation,  touch  no  prin- 
ciple: the  subjection  of  the  Church  to  the  State  de- 
stroys its  freedom.  There  is  no  getting  away  from 
the  facts,  that,  in  England  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
ecclesiastical  changes  were  imposed  by  secular  author- 
ity ;  that  the  "  New  Religion  "  was  State-made ;  and 
that,  in  spite  of  efforts  to  safeguard  theory,  ultimate 
authority  was  vested  in  the  Crown.  The  Crown  ap- 
points and  determines  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops  who 
exist  to  carry  out  the  ecclesiastical  policies  of  the  State. 
In  theory,  cathedral  chapters  may  refuse  to  elect,  and 
bishops  to  consecrate,  royal  nominees ;  and  the  Crown 
may  in  making  nominations  be  guided  solely  by  consid- 
erations of  doctrinal  soundness  and  ecclesiastical  fit- 
ness :  but  these  things  never  have  happened  in  the  Eng- 
lish Establishment,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  never 
can  happen.  The  ecclesiastical  system  "  by  law  estab- 
lished "  in  England  destroyed  the  freedom  whereby 
alone  the  Catholic  Church  can  be  loyal  to  the  Catholic 
Faith. 

The  ordinary  workings  of  the  Established  Church 
have  been  modified,  or  suspended,  in  self-governing  col- 
onies of  the  British  Empire;  they  have  no  direct  bear- 
ing on  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland,  where  the 
British  sovereign  is  head  of  the  Scottish  Kirk;  they 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         135 

may  well  seem  to  have  no  relation  to  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States,  which  has  been  free  of 
all  official  connection  with  the  British  crown  since  the 
declaration  of  American  independence.  In  America 
there  might  well  be — to  use  an  expression  much  in  use 
by  those  interested  in  securing  Bishop  Seabury's  conse- 
cration— "  a  free,  valid,  and  purely  ecclesiastical  Epis- 
copate." Though  the  validity  of  the  American  episco- 
pate stands  or  falls  with  that  of  the  English  line  from 
which  it  is  derived,  yet  it  might  claim  freedom  and  an 
ecclesiastical  character  quite  its  own.  The  Connecticut 
Churchmen  and  others  like-minded  were  intent  on  secur- 
ing the  episcopate  in  accordance  with  ancient  principles 
and  of  ending  the  disadvantages  of  legal  establishment. 
Bishop  Seabury  aimed  at  being  what  Charles  Wesley 
called  him,  in  distinction  from  the  "  episcopate "  in- 
augurated by  his  brother  John,  "  a  Real  and  Primitive 
Bishop."  It  may  therefore  be  urged  that  primitive 
principles  were  decisive  in  the  action  taken  by  American 
Episcopalians  in  1789. 

Churchmen  of  the  eighteenth  century  knew  little 
about  primitive  principles.  They  had  little  opportun- 
ity to  do  so.  Although  many  of  the  S.P.G.  missionaries 
were  men  of  good  education,  they  had  little  opportunity 
for  learned  pursuits  in  America ;  and  the  conditions  of 
their  work  merely  familiarized  them  with  Congrega- 
tionalism. Congregational  principles  were  not  only 
acted  on  by  those  who  avowedly  professed  them;  but 
were  inevitable  under  American  conditions.  Moreover 
Congregationalism  is  the  ecclesiastical  counterpart  of 
democracy ;  and  the  development  of  democratic  govern- 


136         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

ment  in  secular  affairs  naturally  favored  congrega- 
tional evolution  in  arrangements  for  religious  af- 
fairs. 

The  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  par 
excellence  a  period  of  paper-constitutions.  American 
life  in  most  of  its  phases  was  reorganized  under  terms 
of  new  charters.  Religious  bodies,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, illustrated  the  spirit  and  tendency  of  the  time. 
Most  of  them  organized  congregations  into  State  fed- 
erations, ultimately  combining  in  larger  groups,  some- 
times nation-wide  in  extent:  they  held  many  conven- 
tions and  congresses  and  adopted  constitutions.  One 
group  of  congregations  to  do  this  first  and  most  effec- 
tively was  the  Episcopalian.  No  religious  body  com- 
prised in  its  nominal  membership  more  who  played 
prominent  parts  in  the  inauguration  of  the  American 
Republic;  and  the  acquaintance  and  co-operation  of 
these  men  in  national  affairs  had  its  influence  on  the 
organization  of  their  Church.  It  was  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  that  their  ideas  of  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganization should  conform  closely  to  political.  Hence 
it  was  that  the  Episcopalians  arranged  for  State  con- 
ventions composed  of  delegates  elected  by  congrega- 
tions, for  a  General  Convention  composed  of  dujy 
elected  State  delegates,  and  adopted  a  Constitution, 
the  provisions  of  which  conformed  as  closely  as  possible 
to  those  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This 
represented  a  new  departure,  resting  ultimately  on  the 
authority  of  the  membership  of  Episcopalians,  a  minor- 
ity of  whom  were  communicants,  whose  wishes  might  be 
assumed  as  registered  through  accepted  processes  of 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          137 

elections,  conventions,  adoptions,  and  ratifications.  The 
system  was  essentially  democratic,  congregational:  it 
was  adopted  without  reference  to  canon  law,  English, 
Papal,  or  Conciliar,  and  was  simply  one  of  many  simi- 
lar experiments  made  in  America  at  the  time. 

Ultimate  authority  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  thus  inaugurated  and  legally  incorporated,  was 
vested  in  the  General  Convention,  in  which  laymen  as 
well  as  clergy  have  place  and  part.  By  its  Constitution 
and  Canons,  and  by  its  Prayer  Book  adopted  by  Gen- 
eral Convention,  Bishops  were  recognized  as  ministers 
for  Ordination  and  Confirmation,  were  empowered  to 
act  as  executives  in  their  dioceses  for  many  purposes, 
and  collectively  they  were  to  form  an  "  upper  house  " 
in  General  Convention.  The  status  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  is  perhaps  best  de- 
termined by  the  relation  of  its  Episcopate  to  its  General 
Convention. 

Well-informed  Churchmen  have  always  disparaged 
the  paper  "  Constitution,"  pointing  out  that  the  Church 
received  its  constitution  at  Pentecost;  that  it  existed 
in  all  its  parts  prior  to  1789;  that  the  ministry  on 
whom  depended  the  validity  of  its  sacraments  was  im- 
ported from  England  and  Scotland ;  and  that  the  rules 
adopted  for  these  American  dioceses  represent  no  basis 
of  principles,  but  are  merely  a  scheme  of  local  regula- 
tions. The  so-called  "  Constitution  "  is,  in  the  strict 
ecclesiastical  sense,  nothing  but  a  collection  of  the  more 
important  Canons.  General  Convention  is  the  creation 
of  this  Constitution,  but  not  the  episcopate.  The  latter 
was  existent  in  America  when  the  Constitution  was 


138         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

adopted,  and  the  Bishops  signed  it.  To  be  exact,  the 
constitutional  principle  of  the  Church,  that  is,  the 
perpetuation  of  the  society  sent  into  the  world  by  our 
Lord,  is  to  be  found  in  what  was  inherited  from  Eng- 
land, not  in  what  was  newly  devised  in  America.  So 
far  as  government  was  concerned,  the  real  constitution 
was  in  the  Bishops,  and  the  paper  constitution  only  re- 
ceived authority  from  their  approval.  Strict  Church- 
men have  usually  taken  some  such  view  as  this. 

Others  have  maintained  that  ultimate  authority  rests 
with  the  multitude  of  believers ;  that  all  Episcopalians 
were  created  free  and  equal  by  baptism  and  pew-rent; 
that  democratically  exercising  their  sovereign  power 
they  created  General  Convention,  which  is  supreme  over 
all  persons,  clerical  as  well  as  lay ;  and  that  the  episco- 
pate has  no  powers  except  such  as  General  Convention 
has  conferred.  The  laity  as  a  body  are  the  sovereign 
people  of  God,  the  ministry  their  officers  by  election. 
Papal  supremacy  was  superseded  by  royal  supremacy, 
and  this  in  turn  by  popular  supremacy,  all  in  accord 
with  the  processes  of  social  evolution  whereby  feudalism 
made  way  for  nationalism,  which  has  realized  itself  in 
terms  of  democracy. 

There  is  much  to  support  both  these  views.  The  in- 
sistence on  securing  the  episcopate  from  England  and 
Scotland,  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  English 
Prayer  Book,  support  the  first  view:  the  actual  course 
of  events  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  favors  the 
second.  The  Bishops  carefully  maintain  their  right 
to  sit  as  "  a  college  of  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Bishops 
as  such,"  yet  confine  themselves  to  discharge  of  their 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          139 

duties  as  Upper  House  of  General  Convention.  No  one 
can  fairly  deny  that  the  Episcopal  Church  has  taken 
pains  to  assert  the  identity  of  its  hierarchy  with  that  of 
the  early  Church ;  yet  it  may  be  fairly  questioned 
whether  the  assertion  is  substantiated  by  its  actual 
workings.  Assuming  that  the  American  Church  in- 
herited the  ancient  hierarchy  from  England,  it  is  still 
necessary  to  consider  the  losses  and  gains  of  transit.  It 
is  necessary  to  answer  not  one  question  but  two,  Did  it 
survive  the  Royal  Supremacy  of  1558?  and  Did  it 
further  survive  the  declaration  of  independence  of  this 
in  1789?  The  probable  answer  to  both  questions  is 
No. 

2.  One  aspect  of  the  question  of  authority  is  de- 
termination of  "  the  mind  of  the  Church."  Early 
Church  history  seems  to  show  that  the  Church's  mind 
was  identified  with  that  of  the  united  episcopate.  Both 
Latins  and  Greeks  would  agree  to  this,  though  the 
latter  would  hold  that  this  mind  only  expresses  itself 
through  a  General  Council,  while  the  former  would  look 
for  its  ultimate  expression  through  the  Papacy.  Yet, 
in  all  parts  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  the  episcopate 
would  be  regarded  as  constituting  a  college  of  doctors, 
representing  the  priesthood,  through  which  it  is  in  vital 
contact  with  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful  for  which 
it  functions  as  head.  Easterns  would  emphasize  the 
representative  character  of  the  episcopate  in  relation  to 
the  whole  "  people  of  God,"  but,  no  less  than  Westerns, 
would  regard  the  Church  as  essentially  hierarchical, 
and  in  the  body  of  many  members  ascribe  the  functions 
of  headship  to  those  representing  the  group  appointed 


140         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

by  our  Lord  as  "  first,  Apostles."  The  Church  is  "  the 
body  of  the  baptized,"  but  only  this  as  "  the  Body  of 
Christ."  "  We  have  the  mind  of  Christ,"  more  fully  ap- 
prehended as  the  promised  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
gradually  guides  the  apostolic  body  into  all  truth.  The 
Catholic  regard  for  the  mind  of  the  united  episcopate, 
no  matter  what  the  special  theory  as  to  its  method  of 
functioning,  is  the  antithesis  of  every  form  of  indi- 
vidualistic or  anarchic  theory  which,  suspicious  of  all 
headship,  identifies  mind  with  individual  will,  assumes 
the  impossibility  of  absolute  truth,  and  at  best  con- 
ceives of  the  mind  of  the  body  politic  or  ecclesiastical  as 
something  diffused  through  the  toes.  The  Catholic 
theory  begins  with  unity,  not  with  units,  regards  the 
mind  of  Christ  as  the  shining  of  one  light  rather  than 
myriad  reflections  from  manifold  facets,  and  derives  all 
things  by  devolution  from  the  Divine  unity  instead  of 
seeing  development  only  in  coalescence  out  of  primal 
diversity. 

This  principle  is  not  illustrated  in  the  history  of  the 
modern  Church  of  England.  This  "Episcopal" 
Church  has  not  in  fact  been  guided  by  the  mind  of  its 
episcopate.  Although  among  its  Bishops  have  been  its 
strongest  men,  who,  in  the  revived  Convocation  and  in 
Lambeth  Conferences,  have  during  the  last  half  century 
given  many  weighty  expressions  of  opinion,  yet  the  ob- 
vious limitations  under  which  Anglican  Bishops  act 
would  differentiate  the  authority  of  their  pronounce- 
ments from  that  of  episcopal  synods  elsewhere.  In 
most  important  matters  the  judgment  of  the  episcopate 
has  been  ignored.  The  first  Prayer  Book,  prepared 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          141 

by  Cranmer  and  a  subservient  committee,  had  not  the 
formal  sanction  of  Convocation ;  the  Elizabethan 
Prayer  Book  was  repudiated  by  fifteen  out  of  sixteen 
diocesans  then  in  office  and  unwillingly  acquiesced  in 
by  the  sixteenth,  Kitchin  of  Llandaff.  The  Prayer 
Books  were  devised  under  the  auspices,  and  imposed  by 
authority  of,  the  secular  authority.  The  Henrician  and 
Marian  Bishops,  consecrated  under  the  old  pontifical, 
were  the  last  in  England  to  register  episcopal  judg- 
ments independently  of  Crown  and  Parliament;  they 
stood  for  the  Old  Religion,  although  favorable  to  the 
New  Learning  as  represented  by  Erasmus,  Colet,  and 
More.  EdwardLne  and  Elizabethan  history  show  the 
deliberate  suppression  of  episcopal  opinion,  and  the  ap- 
pointment under  the  new  Ordinal  only  of  men  who  could 
be  counted  on  to  carry  out  the  ecclesiastical  policies 
of  the  Crown.  There  was  a  change  of  critical  import- 
ance in  England  when  older  conceptions  of  the  mind  of 
the  Church  gave  place  to  the  coercive  minds  of  Privy 
Councils. 

The  mind  of  the  Anglican  Churches  is  probably  to  be 
looked  for  in  their  official  formularies.  Although  in  the 
first  instance  these  represented  the  opinions  of  a  select 
few,  and  were  imposed  on  the  Church  by  the  civil  au- 
thority, yet  in  the  use  of  them  there  has  been  general  ac- 
quiescence, and  one  of  the  best  definitions  of  Anglicans 
is  "  Prayer  Book  Christians."  Eventually  the  Prayer 
Book  was  accepted  as  authoritative  exposition  of  the 
Church's  mind,  and  it  may  be  so  regarded  now.  This 
is  in  line  with  the  Protestant  tendency  to  supersede 
Catholic  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  by  be- 


142         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

lief  in  the  infallibility  of  certain  literary  documents, 
the  Bible  first,  and  then  sundry  "  Books,"  "  Confes- 
sions," "  Covenants,"  and  "  Constitutions  "  of  the  six- 
teenth and  subsequent  centuries  as  authoritative  inter- 
pretations of  Biblical  doctrine  and  legislation.  In  Eng- 
land this  has  meant  deference  to  Acts  of  Parliament 
with  the  consequence  that  the  actual  doctors  of  the 
Church  have  not  been  its  Bishops  in  synod  but  lawyers 
in  the  Court  of  Arches.  This  has  important  bearings 
on  "  continuity." 

The  mind  of  the  Prayer  Book,  like  that  of  the 
Articles,  is  on  many  important  subjects  a  non-commit- 
tal mind,  a  combination  of  contrasting  hints  that  keep 
one  guessing.  The  teaching  of  the  English  Church  as 
to  Baptismal  Regeneration  was  defined  by  the  Gorham 
Judgment  of  1850,  rejected  by  Catholic-Anglicans  as 
the  pronouncement  of  an  incompetent  tribunal,  but  only 
too  consistent  an  exercise  of  Royal  Supremacy  and 
demonstration  that  Anglican  teaching  on  the  subject  of 
Baptism  is  intentionally  vague.  Its  substance  is  that, 
by  the  existing  rule  of  doctrine,  it  could  not  be  asserted 
either  that  infants  are  regenerated  by  Baptism  or  that 
they  are  not;  the  clergy  may  believe  and  teach  either 
the  one  thing  or  the  other  or  both  indifferently ;  or  "  as 
the  perfection  of  liberty,  the  same  clergyman  could  now 
at  the  font,  in  the  words  of  the  Baptismal  service,  de- 
clare his  belief  in  the  former  doctrine,  and  in  the  pulpit 
proceed  to  enforce  the  latter."  The  Prayer  Book  ex- 
pressly says  that  the  baptized  child  "is  regenerate"; 
but  there  is  a  practical  context  that  indicates  that  this 
need  not  mean  just  what  it  says.  The  Church  of  Eng- 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         143 

land  acknowledges  several  Baptisms,  for,  or  not  for,  the 
Remission  of  Sins,  as  one  chooses. 

3.  There  is  similar  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the 
Eucharist.  Nothing  has  more  direct  bearing  on  the 
question  of  continuity  than  the  answer  to  the  question, 
"  Is  the  English  Communion  the  Mass?  "  Apart  from 
all  considerations  of  title,  this  must  be  considered.  In 
this  there  was  change  of  name ;  was  there  also  change  of 
thing?  Continental  Protestants  avowedly  abolished  the 
Mass  and  the  Priesthood ;  Protestant  Anglicans  main- 
tain that  this  was  done  in  England.  Catholic  Angli- 
cans deny  it ;  they  believe  that  pre-Reformation  and 
post-Reformation  Eucharists  in  England  are  substan- 
tially identical,  though  in  somewhat  different  forms ; 
that  the  mediaeval  Mass  was  Holy  Communion  in  Latin ; 
that  the  modern  Holy  Communion  is  the  Mass  in  Eng- 
lish. This  question  is  vital.  Unless  the  English  Com- 
munion Office  is  essentially  identical  with  the  Latin 
Mass  and  Greek  Liturgy,  no  matter  what  differences 
in  form,  language,  and  proportionate  emphasis  of  as- 
pects, unless  the  English  Rite  enshrines  and  continues 
the  Catholic  Eucharist,  there  has  been  severance  of  the 
Church's  vital  chord.  Eucharistic  succession  forms  its 
line  of  life. 

I  have  always  believed  that  the  Order  of  Holy  Com- 
munion of  the  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI,  "  com- 
monly called  the  Mass,"  was  in  essentials  identical  with 
the  Latin  Rite.  I  know  that  this  is  doubtful,  but, 
though  feeling  the  force  of  the  arguments  against  the 
contention,  still  hold  to  it  as  the  more  reasonable  as- 
sumption, finding  convincing  proof  in  the  fact  that 


144         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

Bishops  of  the  type  of  Gardiner  and  Bonner,  wholly 
opposed  to  revision  as  it  was  being  carried  out  by 
Cranmer,  found  it  possible  to  accept  the  First  Book 
because  of  certain  details  which  safeguarded  essential 
points.  Cranmer's  full  intentions  were  not  in  fact  car- 
ried out  in  1549.  In  1552  they  were.  From  the  Second 
Book  were  carefully  removed  all  the  features  which 
enabled  the  conservative  Bishops  to  accept  the  First. 
I  have  always  believed  the  Book  of  1552  heretical;  yet 
it  was  barely  introduced  before  Edward  died,  and  was 
superseded  in  1558  by  a  revision  from  which  certain  of 
its  most  objectionable  features  were  removed.  It  is 
the  Elizabethan  Book  by  which  the  Church  of  England 
must  be  judged.  Believing  that  this  approximated  the 
First  Book,  I  was  convinced  of  the  orthodox  character 
of  Anglican  standards.  I  now  see  that  the  Elizabethan 
Book  is  virtually  that  of  1552,  and  that  Elizabethan 
legislation  and  customs  make  it  clear  that  there  was  no 
real  reversion  to  the  standards  of  1549. 

The  test-points  in  regard  to  the  Mass  are  its  exhibi- 
tion of  the  Presence  and  of  the  Sacrifice.  Gardiner  and 
his  colleagues  found  evidence  that  the  First  Prayer 
Book  taught  both;  if  so,  the  Communion  of  1549  was 
the  Mass  in  English.  From  the  later  Books,  the  tradi- 
tional doctrine  of  the  Sacrifice  had  disappeared,  that  of 
the  Presence  was  obscured. 

Cranmer  was  sufficiently  under  Continental  in- 
fluences to  wish  to  do  away  utterly  with  both  ideas. 
His  opposition  was  more  radical  than  Luther's,  who 
"held  the  Sacrifice  "  a  stinking  abomination,"  but  held 
to  the  Presence.  Cranmer's  views  varied ;  but  the  fol- 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          145 

lowing  passage  seems  to  represent  his  tendencies  during 
the  critical  years  of  Edward's  reign. 

"  What  availeth  it  to  take  away  beads,  pardons,  pil- 
grimages, and  such  like  Popery,  so  long  as  two  chief  roots 
remain  unpulled  up?  Whereof  so  long  as  they  remain  will 
spring  again  all  former  impediments  of  the  Lord's  harvest 
and  corruption  of  His  flock.  The  rest  is  but  leaves  and 
branches  .  .  .  but  the  very  body  of  the  tree,  or  rather 
the  roots  of  the  weeds,  is  the  Popish  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  of  the  Real  Presence  of  Christ's  Flesh  and 
Blood  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  (as  they  call  it),  and 
of  the  Sacrifice  and  Oblation  of  Christ  made  by  the  priest 
for  the  salvation  of  the  quick  and  the  dead.  Which  roots, 
if  they  be  suffered  in  the  Lord's  vineyard,  they  will  over- 
spread the  ground  again  with  the  old  errors  and  super- 
stitions." * 

There  seemed  to  be  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  first 
generation  of  post-Reformation  divines  that  the  Eng- 
lish Communion  Office  had  removed  all  traces  of  the 
Sacrifice.  Hooker  can  say  casually,  "  seeing  then  that 
sacrifice  is  now  no  part  of  the  Church  ministry,  how 
should  the  name  of  priesthood  be  thereunto  rightly 
applied?  "  f  Later  divines,  feeling  the  necessity  of  fol- 
lowing "  ancient  doctors  "  in  regarding  the  Eucharist 
as  in  some  sense  Sacrifice,  were  disposed  to  connect  the 
sacrificial  idea  with  almost  everything  in  the  Sacrament 
except  the  central  act  of  offering  to  God  the  conse- 
crated elements !  No  Anglican  divines  have  clearly  held 

•  Parker  Society  Publications.     Original  Letters,  p.  266. 
\Eccles.  Pol.,  Bk.  V:  Lxxviii;  3. 


146         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrifice,  as  it  is  expressed  in  the 
Latin  Mass  and  Greek  Liturgy,  until  in  recent  years 
it  has  been  upheld  by  the  younger  generation  of  men 
affected  by  the  Oxford  Movement;  and  none  of  these, 
though  assuming  it  for  the  Prayer  Book,  would  have 
felt  that  the  English  Rite  more  than  hints  its  expres- 
sion. It  must  probably  be  conceded  that  in  the  matter 
of  the  Sacrifice  Cranmer  had  his  way. 

It  is  not  so  clear  that  he  did  in  the  matter  of  the 
Presence.  There  has  never  been  a  time  when  there  ha^ 
not  been  Anglican  theologians  to  insist  on  the  Real 
Presence,  and  to  believe  firmly  that  this  and  this  only 
is  the  teaching  of  the  Prayer  Book.  Two  names  only 
are  sufficient  to  vindicate  the  place  for  this  belief  in  the 
Anglican  Communion,  for  England,  Bishop  Overall  who 
is  supposed  to  have  written  the  part  of  the  Catechism 
on  Sacraments,  and  for  America,  Bishop  Seabury. 
Though  avoiding  attempts  to  define  the  manner  of 
the  Presence,  they  have  had  firm  faith  as  to  the  fact. 
Dr.  Darwell  Stone  accurately  summarizes  the  Anglican 
teaching : 

"  The  Church  of  England  .  .  .  has  abstained  from 
imposing  upon  her  members  any  more  explicit  belief  than 
that  those  who  communicate  rightly  receive,  not  some  in- 
definite gift  of  grace,  but  the  very  Body  and  Blood  of  their 
crucified  and  risen  Lord.  In  supposing  that  the  Church 
of  England  of  necessity  taught  the  further  truth  that  this 
marvellous  presence  of  Christ  results  immediately  from  the 
consecration  and  exists  apart  from  Communion,  the  Trac- 
tarians  appear  to  have  read  into  the  formularies  of  the 
Church  of  England  that  teaching  of  the  ancient  Church  with 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         147 

which  the  minds  of  their  leaders  were  imbued.  ...  At 
the  present  time,  whatever  differences  in  detail  and  in  in- 
ference may  exist,  and  however  differently  certain  terms 
may  be  defined,  there  is  agreement  among  Eastern  Chris- 
tians, Roman  Catholics,  and  the  successors  of  the  Tractari- 
ans  in  the  Church  of  England  as  to  the  central  part  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist."  * 

The  Anglican  Churches  have  always  had  many  sons 
who  held  to  belief  in  the  Eucharistic  Presence  and  found 
the  Prayer  Book  luminous  with  the  doctrine.  Yet  of 
many  more  this  has  not  been  true.  In  Eucharistic  con- 
troversy, the  point  in  England  on  which  most  stress  has 
always  been  popularly  laid  is  its  denial  of  "  Transub- 
stantiation."  To  instructed  theologians  this  means  re- 
jection of  a  special  mode  of  trying  to  explain  the  Pres- 
ence, not  the  Presence  itself;  but  to  most  this  has  sig- 
nified what  it  did  to  Cranmer  in  the  letter  just  quoted, 
not  reverent  agnosticism,  metaphysical  fastidiousness, 
and  theological  accuracy,  but  repudiation  of  the  Mass 
as  a  mystery  and  miracle.  Transubstantiation  to  most 
Anglicans,  as  to  Calvinists,  means  the  actual  change  of 
bread  into  the  Body  of  Christ,  what  Catholics  mean 
by  the  Real  Presence,  f  Although  most  Anglicans  ad- 

•  Stone:  Holy  Communion,  pp.  185 f. 

fThe  sense  in  which  I  interpreted  the  denial  of  tran- 
substantiation  is  given  in  Outlines  of  Church  History,  p.  105. 

"  Adopting  a  mediaeval  philosophical  theory  concerning  the 
relation  of  '  substance '  and  '  accidents/  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation  asserts  that  after  the  consecration  in  the 
Eucharist  the  outward  elements  are  done  away  with,  although 
their  appearance  remains;  and  that  all  that  is  present  is  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  Christ.  To  many  the  recognition  of  the 


148         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

mitted  a  Real  Presence,  their  explanations  often  seemed 
to  make  it  mean  something  not  present  and  not  real. 

"  In  doubtful  points  betwixt  her  differing  friends, 
When  one  for  substance,  one  for  sign,  contends, 
Their  contradicting  terms  she  strives  to  join; 
Sign  shall  be  substance,  substance  shall  be  sign. 
A  real  presence  all  her  sons  allow; 
And  yet  'tis  flat  idolatry  to  bow, 
Because  the  Godhead's  there,  they  know  not  how. 

Then  by  the  same  acknowledgement  we  know 
They  take  the  sign  and  take  the  substance  too. 
The  literal  sense  is  hard  to  flesh  and  blood; 
But  nonsense  never  can  be  understood."  * 

As  Englishmen  came  more  and  more  to  believe  in  the 
Mass  as  a  superstition,  it  was  more  because  of  dislike 
permanence  of  the  '  accidents '  of  the  bread  and  wine  con- 
cealing the  'substance'  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  is 
taken  as  recognition  of  the  two  parts  of  the  Sacrament.  They 
would  say  that  the  sacramental  principle  and  truth  is  merely 
expressed  in  terms  of  medieval  metaphysics.  But  with  others 
the  insistence  that  the  earthly  elements  cease  to  exist  after 
consecration  is  due  to  an  assumption  that  the  Divine  anni- 
hilates the  human  and  earthly.  It  is  this  aspect  of  tran- 
substantiation  which  the  Article  of  the  Church  of  England 
condemns  when  it  says  that  '  it  overthroweth  the  nature  of 
a  Sacrament/  This  type  of  theory  says  that  in  the  Eucharist 
is  present  the  Divine  and  the  Divine  only.  It  ignores  a  great 
principle  of  theology,  that  the  '  supernatural  does  not  destroy 
the  natural,'  the  principle  of  the  Incarnation,  and  of  the  ap- 
plication of  Christianity  to  the  sanctifying  of  human  char- 
acter, in  which  we  are  '  forever  bound  to  insist  that  the  human 
character,  in  its  most  fundamental  nature,  is  meant  to  be 
developed,  not  overthrown,  by  supernatural  grace.' " 

•  Dryden :  Hind  and  Panther,  410-429. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION          149 

for  the  idea  of  Presence  than  for  that  of  repeated  Sac- 
rifice. To  them  as  to  Continental  Protestants  "  Tran- 
substantiation "  signified  the  presence  of  something 
supernatural  as  the  result  of  priestly  consecration. 
Those  who  went  about  smashing  altars  were  not  pain- 
fully sensitive  metaphysicians ;  and  there  were  few  in 
the  sixteenth  century  who  would  have  had  the  academic 
audacity  to  identify  the  English  Communion  with  the 
Latin  Mass,  the  saying  of  which  was  declared  by  Eliza- 
bethan law  to  be  a  penal  offence.  Popular  disbelief 
in  continuity  is  not  disproof  of  it;  but  in  this  case 
it  would  seem  to  accord  with  the  facts  as  shown  in  the 
formularies.  The  clear  line  of  teaching  about  the 
Eucharistic  Sacrifice  was  snapped ;  the  line  of  teaching 
about  the  Eucharistic  Presence  was  hopelessly  blurred. 
The  English  Communion  was  emphatically  distinguished 
from  the  Latin  Mass,  and,  in  consequence,  from  the 
Greek  Liturgy ;  yet  not  so  clearly  from  the  Protestant 
forms  of  Communion,  except  the  most  radical.  It  was 
intended  to  exclude  Zwinglian  conceptions,  but  has  in 
fact  not  done  so.  The  common  assumption  of  the 
similarity  between  the  English  changes  in  the  Mass  and 
the  German  and  Swiss  is  nearer  the  truth  than  the 
strained  interpretations  of  scholarly  divines,  holding 
tenaciously  to  the  Anglican  profession  of  consistent 
"  appeal  to  antiquity." 

4.  The  English  Reformation  made  important 
changes  in  regard  to  Penance.  There  was  no  longer 
teaching  that  Penance  was  a  Sacrament ;  and  confes- 
sion ceased  to  be  part  of  the  Church's  regular  system 
of  discipline.  It  was  made  clear  that  private  confes- 


150         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

sion  was  only  exceptionally  to  be  used,  "  medicine  not 
food,"  and  only  medicine  needed  for  serious  disease. 
The  Prayer  Book,  in  the  Office  for  Visitation  of  the 
Sick,  suggested  that  one  in  perplexity  might  make  a 
special  confession  of  sins,  and  provided  a  sacramental 
form  of  Absolution  (omitted  from  the  American  Book). 
The  only  confessions  generally  required  were  declara- 
tions of  universal  sinfulness,  followed  by  general  decla- 
rations of  God's  power  and  willingness  to  forgive  the 
penitent.  There  have  always  been  Anglicans  who  felt 
that  the  Visitation  rubric  and  Absolution  prove  the  re- 
tention of  sacramental  Penance;  the  majority,  with  a 
Protestant  horror  of  the  confessional,  have  held  that 
the  Church  of  England  wholly  abolished  it.  If  the 
Church's  mind  as  to  Penance  be  sought  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  it  must  be  said  that  on  all  ordinary  occasions 
there  is  no  recognition  of  it ;  in  an  exceptional  case,  it 
is,  so  far  as  words  go,  provided  for.  But  a  rubric  giv- 
ing permission  for  private  confession  by  an  invalid  can- 
not train  clergy  as  confessors.  The  Latin  and  Greek 
Communions,  in  which  the  clergy  are  inter  alia  specifi- 
cally ordained  to  absolve,  teach  their  people  about  the 
Sacrament  of  Penance — as,  for  example,  in  the  Russian 
Catechism — train  the  clergy  in  Moral  Theology,  and 
carefully  safeguard  both  clergy  and  penitents  in  the 
confessional.*  There  are  at  present  a  fair  number  of 
skilled  confessors  and  an  increasing  number  of  habitual 
penitents  in  the  Anglican  churches ;  but  they  represent 

*  At  a  recent  conference  between  Anglican  and  Greek  theo- 
logians, the  Greeks  said  that  .they  would  wish  to  have  an 
Anglican  declaration  of  belief  in  Penance  as  a  Sacrament. 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION         151 

something  connived  at,  rather  than  provided  for,  by  the 
Church's  formal  authority  and  custom,  and  there  is  a 
degree  of  doubtfulness  about  a  representative  and  of- 
ficial act,  not  officially  provided  for,  but  left  to  the 
individual  agent's  discretion  or  whim. 

Defenders  of  Catholic  continuity  in  the  Church  of 
England  can  at  best  establish  a  continuity  by  stepping- 
stones.  This  is  often  the  only  sort  of  historical  con- 
tinuity demonstrable,  and  is  all  that  is  needed  where 
stones  are  of  one  sort,  in  one  line,  and  plainly  prove  a 
solid  bed  of  rock  beneath  the  surface;  which  is  not  the 
case  in  the  modern  Church  of  England.  There  is  a 
raised  highway  of  Protestant  tradition,  if  custom  be 
taken  as  best  interpreter  of  law;  but  also  various  lines 
of  stepping-stones,  affording  possible  detours  from  this 
for  those  who,  choosing  some  special  line,  are  agile 
enough  to  take  long  leaps  and  preserve  their  poise  on 
small  and  slippery  boulders.  It  is  possible  to  pick  one's 
way  along  several  lines  of  Catholic  stepping-stones ;  but 
these  do  not  represent  the  Church's  main  base,  some- 
thing separated  by  wide  clefts  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land's base  prior  to  the  sixteenth  century. 

When  did  the  Catholic  Church  of  England  cease  to 
exist  and  a  Protestant  Church  take  its  place?  There  is 
no  moment  when  in  theory  this  happened.  The  legal 
fiction  that  one  Church  of  England  passed  through  all 
the  changes  of  the  Tudor  reigns  was  always  maintained. 
Yet  continuity  of  spiritual  things  cannot  be  determined 
by  forms  of  parliamentary  law.  The  Church  of  Eng- 
land as  a  legal  entity  did  not  cease  to  exist.  Its  char- 
acter as  a  provincial  extension  of  the  Holy  Catholic 


152         THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 

Church  did.  The  moment  is  determined  by  three  things: 
(1)  the  abandonment  of  Catholic  doctrine  of  Sacra- 
ments by  adoption  of  a  Prayer  Book  which  partly  de- 
nies and  almost  wholly  obscures  it;  (2)  the  acceptance 
of  the  royal  supremacy  in  a  form  which  overthrows 
the  ancient  government  of  the  Church,  episcopal  as 
well  as  papal;  and  (3)  a  matter  not  yet  considered, 
radical  change  in  the  Ordinal.  When  actually  did 
these  things  happen?  Not  later  than  1559. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ANGLICAN    ORDERS 

THE  case  for  the  validity  of  Anglican  Orders  has 
seemed  to  me  until  very  recently  to  be  incontestable. 
The  Catholic  hierarchy  of  England  saw  fit  to  break  off 
relations  with  the  Apostolic  See,  and  to  supersede  the 
Latin  Pontifical  by  an  English  Ordinal.  The  purpose 
of  the  new  Ordinal,  stated  in  its  Preface,  was  to  per- 
petuate historic  Orders ;  and  the  form  used  was  suf- 
ficient to  carry  out  this  purpose.  "  That  these  Orders 
may  be  continued,"  "  receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  Of- 
fice of  a  Priest  (or  Bishop)  in  the  Church  of  God" 
seems  to  make  a  simple  and  obvious  case.  Like  all  who 
believe  in  Anglican  Orders  on  Catholic  principles,  I  con- 
centrated attention  on  these  two  things ;  the  statement 
of  purpose  in  the  Preface,  and  the  sacramental 
formula  used  at  the  imposition  of  hands.  No  matter 
what  the  faults  and  limitations  of  the  English  hier- 
archy, the  validity  of  ordinations  by  Catholic  Bishops, 
intending  to  perpetuate  Catholic  Orders,  and  using  a 
Catholic  formula,  could  not  be  questioned.  Brought  up 
to  believe  that  the  Orders  of  the  Episcopal  Church  were 
those  of  the  ancient  Catholic  Church,  as  distinguished 
from  newly-devised  ministries  of  modern  sects,  the  his- 
torical evidence,  when  I  came  to  examine  it,  seemed  con- 
clusive. Cranmer  and  his  contemporaries  represented 
the  mediasval  hierarchy ;  they  adopted  an  Ordinal  suit- 
153 


154  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

able  for  transmission  of  the  historic  Orders,  and  used 
it  for  that  purpose ;  their  whole  action  implied  belief  in 
Apostolic  Succession  which,  through  them,  was  trans- 
mitted to  English  Bishops  and  Priests.  Parker's  conse- 
cration was  indisputably  regular  in  spite  of  the  "  Nag's 
Head  fable " ;  and  these  Orders  were  transmitted  to 
America  by  the  care  of  Connecticut  to  secure  them  from 
Scotland,  and  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Virginia 
to  secure  them  from  Lambeth.  Even  if  schismatical, 
the  Orders  were  valid,  as  all  Catholics,  Eastern  and 
Western,  must  recognize,  if  they  really  knew  the  facts. 
The  "  Episcopal  Church "  was  par  excellence  the 
Church  of  the  ancient  hierarchy,  which,  as  contrasted 
with  the  Papal  Church,  it  preserved  in  its  ancient  dig- 
nity and  freedom. 

Immediately  after  my  ordination  in  1895,  I  spent 
some  weeks  in  Rome,  and  was  interested  to  learn  that 
the  subject  of  Anglican  Orders  was  to  be  reinvestigated 
by  order  of  Leo  XIII.  At  the  English  Church  in  Via 
Babuwo,  I  often  saw  Lord  Halifax,  who  was  in  Rome 
to  urge  the  reinvestigation.  I  hoped  and  expected  that 
this  must  result  in  recognition  of  their  validity  and  re- 
move a  bar  to  unity,  and  wished  for  it  earnestly,  not 
because  I  thought  Anglical  Orders  at  all  doubtful  or 
dependent  on  the  Pope's  recognition ;  but  because  I 
hoped  that  the  Pope  and  the  Roman  Church  would  no 
longer  keep  themselves  in  the  wrong  by  refusing  to  rec- 
ognize Catholic  principles  and  history.  The  Bull 
Apostolicae  Curae  was  a  bitter  disappointment,  not 
that  it  affected  the  Orders,  but  that  it  indicated  that 
the  Pope  had  missed  a  great  opportunity,  and  was 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  155 

perpetuating  a  partisan  position  which  involved  denials 
of  obvious  historical  truth.  When  the  Response  of  the 
English  Archbishops  to  the  Pope  was  published,  I  felt 
that  Anglican  Orders  had  received  a  final  vindication; 
and  that  its  author,  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  conclu- 
sively proved  that  the  Pope,  by  insisting  on  the  essential 
importance  of  the  traditio  instrumentorum,  had  made  a 
hopeless  blunder,  condemning  Anglican  Orders  on  a 
principle  subversive  of  his  own.  Nor  did  I  change  this 
opinion  until  long  after  I  had  begun  to  question  the 
Orders  for  myself.  Not  a  great  while  ago  I  remember 
saying,  "  If  Leo  XIII  had  only  set  me  to  write  his  Bull 
for  him,  I  could  have  made  a  stronger  case."  The  point 
I  should  have  tried  to  establish  was  that  circumstances 
and  context  may  show  that  an  orthodox  formula  can- 
not be  taken  at  face  value.  This  I  now  know  to  have 
been  the  real  point  of  Apostolicae  Curae! 

Difficulties  about  Orders  were  not  suggested  to  me  by 
reading  Roman  Catholic  books.  They  arose  from  my 
experience  as  Bishop  dealing  with  ordinands  and  clergy, 
and  from  fresh  studies  of  Reformation  history.  On 
Holy  Saturday,  1895,  I  witnessed  the  ordination  of 
about  forty  priests  in  St.  John  Lateran,  was  much 
impressed  by  the  beauty  and  instructiveness  of  the  cere- 
monial, and  wished  that  Anglicans  had  retained  the  full 
symbolism ;  but  nothing  suggested  doubts  as  to  the  suffi- 
ciency of  the  Anglican  Ordinal,  or  the  practical  useful- 
ness of  its  comparative  simplicity  in  our  conditions. 
The  first  suggestion  of  unsatisfactoriness  in  the  Ordinal 
came  into  my  mind  on  Trinity  Sunday,  1910,  when  I 
was  myself  ordaining  a  priest  in  the  Old  Swedes' 


156  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

Church,  Wilmington.  As  I  had  to  read  the  long  ex- 
hortation, composed  by  Bucer,  describing  the  work  of  a 
priest,  I  appreciated  its  inadequacy.  There  was  noth- 
ing not  good  as  far  as  it  goes ;  but  it  fell  short  of  such 
a  well-rounded  description  of  priestly  work  and  char- 
acter as  one  would  wish  for  a  moment  so  solemn  and 
supreme.  For  the  first  time  I  felt  strongly  that  the 
Ordinal  was  unsatisfactory.  I  did  not  doubt  its  suffi- 
ciency ;  but  I  recognized  limitations,  and  saw,  I  think, 
that  it  was  pre-eminently  a  setting  apart  of  preachers. 
My  own  thought  of  priesthood  had  always  centred 
about  stewardship  of  Sacraments,  especially  the  offer- 
ing of  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  and  it  was  with  a  feeling  of 
shock  that  I  recognized  how,  in  the  Ordinal,  the  refer- 
ence to  Sacraments  is  incidental  and  subordinate,  all 
emphasis  being  placed  on  study  of  Scripture  and 
preaching  with  characteristically  Protestant  dispropor- 
tion. I  did  not  think  much  of  these  things  in  1910  or 
for  some  time  after;  but,  from  that  time,  I  was  scruti- 
nizing the  Ordinal  and  our  system  of  training  and  using 
clergy,  and  seeing  that  things  were  not  as  satisfactory 
as  I  had  hitherto  assumed.  My  optimistic,  confident  at- 
titude was  gradually  making  way  for  one  that  was  dis- 
appointed and  critical. 

Eventually  my  thought  of  Anglican  Orders  passed 
through  four  stages,  ending  in  June  1919,  with  recog- 
nition of  the  necessity  of  abandonment:  (1)  that  they 
were  schismatical;  (2)  that  they  were  futile  to  guar- 
antee some  of  the  purposes  of  Orders;  (3)  that  they 
were  dubious,  and  (4)  for  this  reason,  and  because  of 
breaks  in  Catholic  continuity,  invalid. 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  167 

1.  I  have  already  given  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  responsibility  for  Anglican  separation  from  the 
rest  of  Christendom  must  be  chiefly  laid  on  Cranmer 
and  Henry.  Yet,  in  existing  conditions  in  Christendom, 
one  might  feel  that  the  state  of  schism  is  inevitable; 
that  the  Anglican  schism  could  be  defended  on  several 
grounds ;  and  that,  in  any  case,  its  Orders,  even  if  schis- 
matical,  are  quite  valid.  Novatian,  Donatist,  Armen- 
ian, and  various  other  lines  of  Orders  regarded  as  schis- 
matical,  are  of  unquestioned  validity.  Yet  to  perpetu- 
ate Anglican  Orders  was  to  perpetuate  the  Anglican 
schism,  and  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  to  be  convinced 
of  essential  superiority  in  this  schismatical  position. 
The  Bishop  of  Zanzibar  (Dr.  Weston)  has  insisted 
strongly  on  the  necessity  of  believing  that  the  Church 
of  one's  allegiance  affords  a  possible  basis  for  the  re- 
union of  Christendom.  This  of  course  I  strongly  be- 
lieved at  the  time  of  my  consecration.  But,  probably 
first  in  1912,  although  always  seeing  the  good  done  by 
the  Anglican  movement,  I  began  to  question  whether  its 
work  might  not  for  the  most  part  be  done,  and  long 
before  I  had  thoughts  of  having  to  abandon  its  com- 
munion, I  questioned  the  usefulness  of  perpetuating  it 
indefinitely  in  America.  The  concrete  question  for  me 
was,  "  Is  American  Christianity  benefited  by  preserv- 
ing the  distinctness  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Dela- 
ware? "  I  came  to  doubt  this.  I  felt  more  and  more 
that  Delaware  Catholics  had  best  be  in  communion  with 
the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop,  that  Protestants  would  be 
better  off  in  some  sort  of  federation.  Less  and  less 
did  I  feel  that,  either  for  Catholics  or  Protestants,  had 


158  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

the  Episcopal  Church  any  potential  superiority  to  jus- 
tify its  perpetuation.  The  moment  I  was  conscious  of 
such  thoughts,  I  saw  that,  apart  from  all  question  of 
their  correctness,  they  suggested  that  I  had  no  right  to 
retain  my  official  responsibility. 

A  similar  illustration  was  afforded  by  thoughts  about 
religious  provision  for  the  village  of  Bryant  Pond, 
where  I  have  spent  summers  for  twenty  years.  Al- 
though I  have  held  regular  services  at  Birchmere  for 
my  household  and  any  who  chose  to  use  them,  I  never 
wished  to  see  an  Episcopal  Church  in  the  village.  I 
wished  that  there  might  be  a  chapel  for  the  handful  of 
Catholics;  and  also  to  see  all  the  Protestants  in  the 
congregation  of  my  friend  the  Reverend  E.  H.  Stover, 
a  Baptist  and  the  only  resident  minister,  whose  pastoral 
work  was  most  admirable.  Yet  I  saw  the  incongruity  of 
being  a  Bishop  when  I  felt  that  the  coming  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  to  my  summer-home  would  introduce  un- 
necessary religious  divisions,  and  when  I  was  more  and 
more  questioning  its  usefulness  in  Delaware.  Its  social 
position  was  irreproachable,  its  usefulness  varied;  but 
its  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical  status  was  uncertain. 

"September  20,  1918. 

"  What  am  I  set  to  do  in  Delaware  ? 

"  To  extend  and  perpetuate  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 

"What  is  that? 

"  An  excellent  form  of  Protestantism,  whose  distinctive 
merit  is  the  beauty  and  dignity  of  Prayer  Book  forms. 

"  Is  it  essentially  superior  to  other  forms  of  Protestant- 
ism ? 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  159 

"  No:  the  record  of  Presbyterians,  for  example,  for  good 
works  is  full  as  good ;  the  influence  of  Methodists  and  Bap- 
tists is  much  more  extensive. 

"  Is  Protestant  federation  a  good  thing? 

"  Yes. 

"  How  can  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  best  further 
this? 

"  By  abandoning  its  insistence  on  episcopal  ordination 
and  its  pretence  of  priesthood. 

"  Does  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  train  Catholics? 

"  Yes. 

"  What  does  it  give  them  ? 

"  A  precarious  existence  now,  and  probably  none  a  few 
years  hence. 

"  But  what  of  the  Oxford  Movement? 

"  A  spent  wave.  The  outward  signs  of  its  influence  are 
on  the  increase;  but  it  has  failed  to  counteract  destructive 
rationalism  in  the  Anglican  Communion,  which  was  .its 
fundamental  aim. 

"  What  then  is  it  to  maintain  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Delaware  ? 

"  To  perpetuate  an  unnecessary  schism.  Hence  I  must 
go.  Q.E.F." 

2.  Two  of  the  chief  purposes  of  Orders  are  the  en- 
suring of  loyal  witness  to  the  Faith,  and  faithful  stew- 
ardship of  Sacraments.  In  the  Anglican  churches 
neither  of  these  seems  to  be  assured. 

Clergy  are  usually,  though  not  invariably,  trained  to 
believe  in  the  Creeds ;  but  custom  does  not  compel  them 
to  continue  to  believe  in  or  to  teach  them.  Doctrinal 
laxity  is  characteristic.  Everything  which  illustrates 
the  inclusiveness  which  tolerates  every  variation  from, 


160  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

and  denial  of,  articles  of  the  Faith,  may  be  cited  as 
evidence  that  Anglican  Orders  are  futile  to  accomplish 
one  chief  purpose  of  the  apostolic  ministry. 

It  may  be  urged  that  so  long  as  the  Church  is  of- 
ficially committed  to  the  Creeds,  its  position  is  unaf- 
fected by  any  amount  of  actual  laxity,  which  is  to  be 
regarded  merely  as  exceptional  failure  to  keep  up  to  the 
standard.  One  of  the  chief  lessons  of  modern  religious 
history  is  that,  for  the  defence  and  perpetuation  of 
Christian  truth,  something  more  is  needed  than  official 
declarations.  There  is  nothing  singular  in  the  Angli- 
can declarations  of  loyalty  to  the  theology  of  the 
Creeds.  All  forms  of  "  orthodox  "  Protestantism,  that 
is,  all  except  Socinians,  have  similar  official  declara- 
tions. Yet,  in  the  whole  Protestant  world,  there  has 
been,  and  is,  steady  drift  away  from  definite  belief  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.*  Lutheranism  is  still 
in  theory  committed  to  the  Augsburg  Confession;  but 
the  number  of  "  Confessional  Lutherans  "  is  very  small, 
there  are  practically  none  left  in  Germany.  The  Evan- 
gelical Church  of  Germany,  comprising  Lutherans  and 
Reformed,  is  in  theory  "  orthodox  " ;  in  fact,  it  main- 
tains an  evaporated  Christianity.  All  Calvinists  are 
committed  to  the  Westminster  Confession  or  some  simi- 
lar standard  of  doctrine;  the  letter  of  these  documents 
is  notoriously  regarded  as  dead,  and  Unitarianism  has 
everywhere  followed  in  Calvinism's  wake.  Over  thirty 

•Carlyle  noted  this.  "Protestantism."  he  said,  "has  its 
face  turned  in  the  right  direction,"  by  which  he  meant  that  it 
tended  to  denial  pf  revealed  religion. 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  161 

years  ago  Aubrey  Moore  wrote  a  paper  noting  this 
fact,  of  which  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  afforded 
sweeping  illustration.  It  used  to  seem  to  me  that  Cal- 
vinism and  Unitarianism  were  related  as  cause  and  ef- 
fect owing  to  the  fact  that,  though  theoretically  main- 
taining the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  so  firmly  that  Calvin 
burned  Servetus,  the  Calvinist  conception  of  God  is 
essentially  that  of  the  Old  Testament  Jehovah  or  the 
Mohammedan  Allah,  the  embodiment  of  wrathful  Power. 
The  Son  has  place  in  its  system  of  salvation  as  innocent 
victim  on  whom  the  Father  can  glut  His  vengeful  anger, 
but  none  in  its  practical  theology.  This  phenomenon, 
however,  is  not  confined  to  the  history  of  Calvinism,  but 
is  obse-rvable  in  every  phase  of  Protestant  development. 
All  Protestantism  is  committed  to  "  the  Bible  and  the 
Bible  only " ;  yet  it  is  among  Protestants  that  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  has  become  most  obviously  dis- 
credited, and  its  doctrines  discarded.  The  old  stand- 
ards have  never  been  ostensibly  abandoned ;  but  so  long 
as  interpretation  and  application  of  them  have  been  left 
to  individual  private  judgment,  there  has  been  no  main- 
tenance of  the  standards.  Documentary  "  articles  of 
faith,"  left  to  individual  discretion,  have  not  discharged 
the  function  of  the  Church  as  "  the  Pillar  and  Ground 
of  Truth."  The  whole  history  of  Protestantism  shows 
the  valuelessness  of  official  declarations  alone  to  main- 
tain loyalty  to  the  Faith ;  and  the  history  of  Angli- 
canism affords  no  exception.  Its  clergy  are  bound  by 
ordination  vows  to  uphold  the  faith  of  the  Creeds ;  ac- 
tually they  do  not  do  so.  This  practical  failure  of  men 
in  Orders  suggests  queries  as  to  the  Orders  themselves. 


162  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

The  historic  succession  of  clergy  in  the  Catholic  Church 
has  always  been  witness  to  the  Faith  once  delivered. 

Similarly  have  the  Orders  seemed  futile  to  ensure 
true  apprehension  and  full  use  of  Sacraments.  As 
stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  too  many  Anglican 
clergy  are  habitually  "  unjust."  They  are  ready  to  bid 
men  take  their  bills  and  write  down  forty-nine,  forty- 
eight,  any  low  figure  they  choose,  to  represent  sacra- 
mental obligations  and  beliefs,  so  long  as  they  will  re- 
ceive them  into  their  houses.  They  are  habitually  nerv- 
ous lest  people  believe  too  much,  but  not  worried  by 
their  believing  too  little.  In  many  congregations,  it 
makes  little  obvious  difference  in  the  status  of  members 
whether  they  are  communicants ;  and  if  they  can  be  in- 
duced to  come  to  confirmation  and  communion,  they  are 
permitted  to  do  so  with  any  views  of  these  rites  they 
choose  to  hold.  It  is  all  in  accord  with  Elizabethan  in- 
sistence on  conformity  without  insistence  on  conviction, 
with  Protestant  reference  of  all  things  to  individual 
preference.  This  is  not  the  method  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  performing  Divine  functions,  the  nature  of 
which  the  Church  itself  teaches,  and  with  which  its  in- 
dividual members  identify  themselves.  Episcopalian 
clergy  are  almost  forced  to  content  themselves  with 
vague  teaching  about  Sacraments,  if  they  will  keep  the 
peace,  since  there  are  usually  parishioners  ready  and 
desirous  to  be  "  aggrieved  "  at  definite  sacramental  doc- 
trine; in  so  doing  they  follow  authoritative  precedent. 
In  "  Catholic  parishes  "  teaching  is  clear  enough ;  but 
the  Church  only  tolerates  their  clergy  as  eccentricities, 
which  can  be  suppressed  by  public  opinion,  if  they  be- 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  163 

come  aggressive.  The  Anglican  clergy  as  a  body  do  not 
illustrate  the  function  of  the  Catholic  priesthood  as  of- 
ficial guardians  of  the  honor  of  Sacraments ;  nor,  as  has 
already  been  noted,  are  the  ancient  presentations  of 
these  continued  by  the  system  they  are  set  to  admin- 
ister. Young  men,  beginning  work  after  ordination 
with  highest  ideals  of  their  stewardship  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, seem  compelled  against  their  wills,  by  the  normal 
conditions  of  their  ministry,  gradually  to  relapse  to  a 
lower  plane.  I  have  seen  much  of  this  in  following  the 
careers  of  my  Seminary  pupils  and  in  knowing  the  cir- 
cumstances of  my  own  clergy.  Consideration  of  these 
practical  failures  of  clergy  of  the  Anglican  succession 
does  not  touch  directly  the  question  of  validity ;  it  does, 
however,  suggest  that  the  succession  is  not  as  effective 
as  others.  This  was  the  effect  on  myself. 

The  practical  consequence  was  change  in  my  atti- 
tude toward  candidates  for  Orders.  I  was  tempted  to 
warn  young  men  with  Catholic  ideals  of  the  inevitable 
disappointments  ahead  of  them:  I  stopped  suggesting 
to  boys  and  young  men  that  they  consider  possible 
vocation  to  the  ministry:  a  promising  candidate  for 
Orders  abandoned  his  course,  and  I  was  glad  of  it! 
For  those  who  came  to  see  me  I  did  what  I  could  in  the 
way  of  sympathy  and  advice ;  but  for  six  years  at  least 
my  attitude  was  spiritless  and  my  conduct  perfunctory. 
I  was  appealed  to  on  various  matters  connected  with 
theological  education,  and  took  no  interest.  I  had 
ceased  to  expect  any  thorough  training  for  Catholic 
priesthood,  or  that  such  training,  if  provided,  could  be 
rightly  utilized.  Similarly,  for  at  least  as  long  a  time, 


164  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

I  would  do  nothing  to  induce  clergy  to  take  work  in 
Delaware.  I  would  do  all  I  could  to  help  vestries  and 
men  who  wished  to  come  to  get  in  touch  with  each  other, 
but  avoided  all  action  which  would  in  any  way  have 
made  me  personally  responsible. 

Thoughts  like  these,  in  1913  and  much  more  in  1916, 
suggested  the  duty  of  resignation.  I  had  then  no 
thought  of  giving  up  Orders,  but  debated  my  right  to 
continue  Bishop  of  Delaware.  I  owed  my  diocese  hard 
work  and  sincerity,  which  I  gave:  I  felt  I  owed  also 
enthusiasm,  which  had  become  impossible.  I  tried  to 
ascribe  the  despondency  to  ill  health  and  personal  wor- 
ries, but  had  in  the  end  to  admit  that  they  had  nothing 
to  do  with  it.  I  ought  to  have  given  up  long  before  I 
did.  I  acted  on  the  principle,  "  While  merely  in  doubt, 
stick  to  your  work,"  and  was  wishing  to  keep  my  mind 
in  suspense  until  the  results  of  the  War  on  the  ecclesi- 
astical world  were  evident,  and  until  after  the  next  Lam- 
beth Conference,  which  I  keenly  wished  to  attend.  I  re- 
solved to  give  up  my  post  the  moment  doubt  became 
disbelief.  I  may  have  been  slow  in  seeing  when  the  time 
had  come.  At  any  rate,  the  errors  were  those  of  over- 
cautious delay,  not  of  impulsive  haste. 

3.  For  some  time  I  knew  that,  in  all  probability,  the 
practical  test  of  ability  to  retain  my  post  would  come 
in  connection  with  ordinations.  I  looked  to  those  in 
prospect  as  so  many  hurdles,  and  rather  expected  that 
I  should  come  to  one  I  could  not  surmount.  I  thought 
much  of  this  during  1917  and  1918,  and  although  in 
February  and  August  of  the  latter  year  I  held  ordina- 
tions without  scruple,  I  suspected  they  might  be  my 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  165 

last.  In  September,  1918,  it  happened  that  I  could  ask 
the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  to  ordain  one  of  my  candi- 
dates for  me;  and  I  was  glad  of  an  excuse  not  to  act 
myself. 

During  the  months  that  followed,  while  I  was  con- 
stantly thinking  of  the  subject  of  Orders,  I  happened 
to  see  an  article  by  one  of  our  Bishops  in  which  he 
urged  acceptance  of  our  Orders  on  the  ground  that  "  no 
special  theory  was  attached  "  to  them,  making  it  pos- 
sible to  attach  any  special  theory  one  chose.  It  was 
not  a  profound  disquisition,  but  it  led  me  to  consider 
the  whole  theory  of  Orders,  and  especially  to  compare 
Anglican  arguments  as  to  their  being  of  the  esse  or  of 
the  bene  esse  of  the  Church.  I  had  never  had  doubts 
that  the  former  represented  the  true  Anglican  view. 
They  are  essential:  the  Church  of  England  carefully 
preserved  them,  and  rigorously  insists  on  them :  that 
proves  the  Anglican  position,  no  matter  how  much  toler- 
ance there  is  of  vague  views.  I  had  always  been  con- 
temptuous of  the  bene  esse  contention.  The  reinvesti- 
gation,  with  my  eyes  opened,  as  they  had  not  been  in  the 
past,  to  the  actual  facts  of  Anglican  history  as  the 
result  of  recent  studies,  forced  me  to  admit  that  the 
defenders  of  the  bene  esse  view,  as  typically  Anglican, 
have  the  stronger  case.  I  had  to  concede  their  inter- 
pretation of  the  Preface  to  the  Ordinal  to  seem  the  more 
reasonable,  and  that  on  their  side  are  the  bulk  of  facts 
that  afford  practical  tests.  In  effect  these  make  the 
Anglican  Churches  say :  "  We  have  kept  the  ancient 
Orders,  Bishop,  Priest,  and  Deacon ;  we  require  epis- 
copal ordination  for  those  who  minister  in  our  own 


166  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

churches :  but  we  do  not  say  that  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary, nor  do  we  require  those  who  submit  to  it  to  have 
any  particular  opinions  concerning  it.  It  is  to  be  as- 
sumed that  our  Church  has  a  mind;  but  on  this  subject 
she  has  no  opinions  to  express."  The  official  attitude 
of  an  Anglican  Bishop  conferring  Holy  Orders  is  there- 
fore, "  I  perform  this  solemnity  whereby  you  may  be 
admitted  to  minister  in  our  churches :  but  as  to  what  it 
is  in  itself,  or  as  to  what  you  and  others  are  to  think 
of  it,  I  have  officially  nothing  to  say.  Though  per- 
sonally and  privately  I — and  so  may  you — hold  Orders 
to  be  a  Sacrament,  officially  I  must  treat  them  as  doubt- 
fully sacramental,  and  merely  urge  them  as  non-com- 
mittally  harmless."  I  had  never  been  able  to  treat  this 
view  respectfully.  I  was  forced  to  concede  that  it  seems 
to  me  the  better-sustained,  if  not  the  only  possible,  view 
of  Orders  as  perpetuated  in  the  Anglican  Communion. 

Such  a  view  excludes  belief  in  Orders  as  a  Sacrament. 
If  Our  Lord  by  His  commission  of  the  Apostles  insti- 
tuted a  Sacrament  whereby  His  Divine  grace  is  trans- 
mitted to  those  called  to  minister  in  His  Name,  this 
tremendous  fact  cannot  be  treated  with  indifference. 
Indifference  in  such  matters  is  denial.  If  the  sacra- 
mental theory  of  Orders  be  true,  their  necessity  and 
authoritative  character  cannot  be  ignored :  to  adopt  an 
ambiguous  attitude,  to  refrain  from  clear  assertion,  is 
in  effect  to  deny  their  sacramental  character. 

Clearer  recognition  of  this  some  months  later  was 
the  definite  reason  of  my  renunciation  of  the  ministry. 
Other  reasons  were  becoming  more  and  more  plain  to 
me ;  but  this  was  the  only  one  I  felt  I  could  then  specify 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  167 

in  my  letter  of  resignation  addressed  to  the  Presiding 
Bishop. 

*'  To  my  mind  Orders  to  which  '  no  special  theory  is 
attached '  are  Orders  to  which  no  special  Importance  is 
attached.  Orders  of  this  description  do  have  the  theory 
attached  that  no  special  theory  is  necessary,  which  ex- 
cludes the  sacramental  view.  To  the  Orders  of  the  Catholic 
Church  the  theory  is  always  attached,  or  rather,  in  them  the 
principle  is  inherent,  that  Orders  is  a  Sacrament,  perpetu- 
ating the  Apostolate  instituted  by  our  Lord.  If  the  '  no 
special  theory '  view  be  the  more  correct  one,  Anglican 
Orders  are  proven  dubious,  if  not  invalid  through  defect 
of  intention.  If  so,  I  for  one  cannot  perpetuate  them,  nor 
can  I  hold  them." 

I  had  been  set  to  thinking  of  these  matters  by  the 
article  read  early  in  October,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
month,  while  the  matter  was  simmering  in  my  mind,  I 
attended  a  conference  at  the  General  Theological  Semi- 
nary between  the  Metropolitan  of  Athens,  attended  by 
five  or  six  Greek  theologians,  and  eight  or  ten  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  object  of  the 
conference  was  to  discuss  the  possibility  of  Eastern- 
Orthodox  recognition  of  Anglican  Orders.  The  Metro- 
politan was  willing  to  urge  this  whenever  political  con- 
ditions permit  the  holding  of  an  Eastern-Orthodox 
synod:  and  he  stated  that  what  would  most  help  mat- 
ters would  be  official  declarations  that  Anglicans 
regard  Orders  as  a  Sacrament;  that  the  XXXIX 
Articles  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  having  a  doctrinal 
character;  also  that,  in  case  of  Eastern  recognition  of 


168  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

the  Anglican  Orders,  it  should  be  clear  that  Anglicans 
would  recognize  the  authority  of  an  episcopal  synod  in 
which  Easterns  and  Anglicans  should  sit  together,  that 
is,  the  paramount  authority  of  the  united  episcopate. 
The  sacramental  character  of  the  formula  in  the  Or- 
dinal was  recognized  by  the  Greeks ;  and  their  reason- 
able attitude  was,  "  If  you  ordain  by  a  form  that  im- 
plies that  Orders  is  a  Sacrament,  why  aren't  you  willing 
officially  to  say  so?  "  It  was  asked  whether  such  a  dec- 
laration might  not  be  made  by  the  House  of  Bishops  or 
by  General  Convention.  One  of  the  American  theolo- 
gians, commented,  "  Of  course,  we  could  never  expect 
General  Convention  to  do  that."  I  feared  he  was  right, 
but  felt  that  it  threw  grave  doubts  on  the  virtue  -of  the 
Ordinal,  if  when  it  implied  a  Sacrament  of  the  Church, 
the  General  Convention  could  not  be  counted  on  to  take 
it  seriously. 

A  number  of  the  Americans  urged  that  the  Articles, 
adopted  from  motives  of  political  expediency  for  six- 
teenth century  difficulties  in  England,  could  not  be 
taken  as  exposition  of  the  Church's  doctrine,  which 
must  be  sought  in  the  Prayer  Book ;  and  hence  that  the 
Articles  might  be  ignored.  I  was  in  full  agreement  with 
their  dislike  of  the  Articles,  not  with  the  feeling  that 
they  could  be  set  lightly  aside.  They  have  played  too 
prominent  a  part  to  permit  of  this,  and  all  too  ac- 
curately represent  the  theological  position  of  many  of 
our  people. 

I  left  the  conference  delighted  with  the  Greeks, 
strongly  drawn  to  them,  but  with  the  feeling  that  the 
attitude  of  the  Episcopal  Church  toward  Orders  and 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  169 

the  authority  of  episcopal  synods  was  so  doubtful,  that 
there  could  be  no  recognition  by  the  Easterns  if  the 
exact  facts  were  known.  A  few  weeks  later  I  wrote 
about  it  to  one  of  the  lay-members  of  the  conference: 

"November  29,  1918. 

"  I  want  to  know  what  you  think  of  the  specific  ques- 
tions raised  by  the  Greeks  at  the  conference  in  New  York. 
"  (1)   Does  the  Anglican  Communion  regard  Orders  as 
a  Sacrament? 

"  (2)  If  the  East  recognized  Anglican  Orders  and  hence 
automatically  the  right  of  the  Anglican  Bishops  to  sit  in  a 
synod  with  them,  would  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
recognize  and  obey  a  quasi-ecumenical  synod  so  constituted  ? 
"  (1)  ...  The  Prayer  Book  treats  Orders  as  sacra- 
mental, even  though  it  hesitates  to  say  more  than  that  it  is 
'  a  state  of  life  allowed  in  Holy  Scripture  ' !  But  there  are 
various  important  things  in  the  Prayer  Book  which  are  not 
to  be  taken  to  mean  what  they  say.  It  is  notorious  that 
many  Anglicans  do  not  consider  that  there  is  an  actual 
imparting  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  ordination;  and  it  is  often 
necessary  to  interpret  P.B.  language  by  context  and  custom. 
Notwithstanding  the  language  of  the  Prayer  Book  and  the 
belief  of  eminent  Anglican  divines,  it  is  not  certain  that 
belief  in  Orders  as  a  Sacrament  may  be  affirmed  of  the 
Anglican  Churches.  It  is  quite  unlikely  that  General  Con- 
vention would  deliberately  affirm  Orders  to  be  a  Sacra- 
ment or  in  any  sense  go  beyond  the  letter  of  '  Two  only.' 

"  The  Greeks  are  quite  right  to  insist,  '  If  you  have  a 
sacramental  formula  in  your  Ordinal,  and  say  individually 
that  you  believe  Orders  sacramental,  why  don't  you  say  it 
in  the  most  formal  and  explicit  way  ?  '  And  when  we  won't 
do  it,  they  would  be  quite  right  in  saying,  '  No  matter  what 


170  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

form  your  Ordinal   prescribes,  it  is   quite   plain  that  you 
do  not  believe  your  Orders  to  be  sacramental.' 

"  (2)  The  Greeks  with  their  traditional  belief  in  the 
episcopate  as  the  source  of  life  and  authority  in  the  Church, 
holding  to  belief  in  the  authority  of  General  Councils  in 
which  bishops  alone  sat,  quite  naturally  would  defer  to  a 
synod  comprising  all  available  bishops,  and  would  expect 
any  part  of  the  Church  in  communion  with  them  to 
do  so. 

"  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  would  not  recognize 
conciliar  authority  in  its  own  bishops,  much  less  in  a  synod 
in  which  they  would  be  outnumbered  by  Orientals. 

(Take  yourself  for  example.  You  might  recognize  the 
authority  of  a  pack  of  bishops  all  of  whose  wires  you  could 
pull;  but  the  bosses  of  the  Anglican  Curia  could  not 
manage  the  Easterns,  no  matter  how  well-trained  their  own 
diocesans  were  to  stand  without  hitching;  and  you  would 
not  let  them  jeopardize  the  prospects  of  Protestant  fed- 
eration !) 

"  My  opinion  is  that  the  true  answer  to  both  questions  is 
'  No,'  although  Orders  is  a  Sacrament  or  not  Orders,  and 
the  assumption  of  the  Greeks  about  the  authority  of  a 
general  episcopal  synod  is  the  only  one  possible  for  those 
who  accept  the  principles  of  the  early  Church.  The  in- 
ference to  be  drawn  is  not  the  unreasonableness  of  the 
Easterns  but  the  flimsiness  of  the  Anglican  claim  to  adhere 
to  primitive  conceptions. 

"  I  need  not  explain  what  I  myself  would  think  in  the 
abstract.  I  think  you  can  see  that  my  beliefs  in  principle 
do  not  harmonize  with  my  view  of  facts;  but  it  is  the  latter 
I  am  concerned  with.  What  I  want  to  get  at  is  what  must 
be  said  of  the  principles  of  the  Church.  I  don't  care  about 
individual  opinions,  my  own  as  little  as  those  of  any  one 
else." 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  171 

There  came  a  sudden  revelation  of  how  far  these 
meditations  on  Orders  had  carried  me,  when  early  in 
Advent  I  received  two  requests  to  ordain  for  other 
Bishops.  The  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  asked  me  to  act 
for  him  in  ordaining  a  Pennsylvania  deacon,  actually  at 
work  in  Delaware ;  and  the  Bishop  of  New  York  wished 
me  to  hold  an  ordination  for  him  in  Trinity  Church. 
I  could  easily  have  arranged  to  accept  both  invita- 
tions and  would  ordinarily  have  been  more  than  will- 
ing to  do  so.  I  saw  that  it  was  impossible  and  de- 
clined both,  not  giving  the  real  reason,  which  was  that 
I  had  to  admit  to  myself  that  I  no  longer  was  cer- 
tain that  Anglican  Orders  were  Catholic  Orders,  and 
hence  could  not  in  good  faith  confer  them.  I  re- 
gretted that  I  had  received  them :  I  refused  to  transmit 
them. 

I  had  not  at  this  time  come  to  think  them  absolutely 
invalid,  although  I  was  doubtful  about  it ;  yet  I  felt 
they  represented  a  line  of  ecclesiastical  development 
not  worth  perpetuating.  I  did  not  then  think  them 
condemned  by  involving  separation  from  the  Apostolic 
See,  though  I  deplored  this,  and  felt  even  more  strongly 
the  separation  from  the  Eastern-Orthodox  Churches. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  they  were  essentially  connected 
with  a  principle  of  schism ;  that  they  failed  to  protect 
the  Faith  and  Sacraments ;  and  that  there  was  so  much 
doubt  as  to  the  intention  with  which  they  were  con- 
ferred, that  no  Catholic  Communion  could  recognize 
them  as  satisfactory,  even  if  technically  valid  as  having 
been  transmitted  through  an  unbroken  line  of  Bishops. 
It  was  not.  until  later  that  I  came  to  feel  that  the  dubi- 


172  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

ousness  alone  was  sufficient  proof  that,  even  if  Orders 
of  a  sort,  they  were  not  Catholic  Orders. 

I  saw  at  once  that  the  refusal  to  ordain  indicated 
that  the  time  to  give  up  had  come.  I  did  not  wish  to 
stop  then,  but  could  not  honestly  go  on  with  my  work. 
I  made  an  appointment  for  a  conference  with  the  Rever- 
end Dr.  Laird,  President  of  the  Delaware  Standing 
Committee,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  how  I  might 
end  my  work  with  least  inconvenience  to  the  diocese; 
but  before  I  could  see  him,  I  was  called  to  Ohio  by  seri- 
ous illness  in  my  family,  and  I  could  not  talk  with  Dr. 
Laird  until  the  end  of  January,  when  I  spent  four  days 
at  his  house.  I  told  him  that  I  must  give  up  as  soon  as 
possible,  and,  without  going  into  details,  the  general 
reasons.  There  could  not  be  actual  resignation  before 
October,  when  the  House  of  Bishops  would  be  in  session  ; 
and  it  seemed  to  both  of  us  that  it  would  be  best  in  the 
diocese  for  me  to  attend  to  all  routine  work  up  to  the 
time  of  the  diocesan  Convention  in  May.  At  that  time 
I  wished  to  announce  my  intention  to  the  diocese  and  go 
to  Maine.  Until  then,  I  wished  nothing  said,  to  avoid 
unnecessary  discussions  and  explanations  and  the 
ordeal  of  formal  farewells.  The  plan  we  made  in  Jan- 
uary was  carried  out  exactly  except  that  I  did  not  go 
to  open  the  Convention.  As  the  time  for  this  ap- 
proached, I  could  see  that  my  absence  would  simplify 
matters  in  various  ways,  and  I  wished  to  avoid  any 
public  exhibition  of  my  loss  of  faith.  I  asked  the 
advice  of  Dr.  Laird,  Chancellor  Curtis,  and  Mr. 
George  R.  Hoflfecker,  who  after  conference  unanimously 
advised  me  not  to  be  present  at  the  Convention.  This 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  173 

helped  me  out  of  a  difficulty,  as  there  was  illness  in  my 
family,  and  I  was  constantly  needed  at  Birchmere.  In 
the  trying  ordeal  of  leaving  Delaware,  the  greatest  com- 
fort and  support  I  had  was  the  knowledge  that  Dr. 
Laird,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  my  church  views  and 
did  all  he  could  to  dissuade  me  from  resignation,  wholly 
credited  the  sincerity  of  my  motives  and  believed  that  I 
had  in  every  way  considered  the  interests  and  conveni- 
ence of  the  diocese.  A  few  days  before  his  death  the  fol- 
lowing August  he  spoke  of  me  in  kinder  terms  than  I 
deserve,  expressing  his  "  confidence  that  (I)  would 
always  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  (my)  con- 
science." This  I  like  to  think  of  as  the  close  of  my 
connection  with  Delaware. 

4.  At  the  time  of  breaking  from  my  diocese  the  only 
thing  perfectly  clear  was  the  duty  of  resigning  my 
post :  I  did  not  yet  see  what  I  must  do  about  the  Orders 
and  Communion  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  I  knew  that 
abandonment  of  both  was  even  probable  and  told  inti- 
mate friends  so;  but  it  was  quite  conceivable  that  it 
would  seem  my  duty  to  end  life  "  as  an  Anglican  dere- 
lict." In  the  quiet  of  Birchmere,  things  began  quickly 
to  shape  themselves.  I  had  not  been  there  a  month 
before  I  saw  plainly  that  my  letter  of  resignation  must 
be  also  a  renunciation  of  the  ministry,  and  in  that  form 
it  was  sent.  I  was  also  continuing  my  investigations  of 
the  Ordinal,  and  by  July  was  convinced  not  only  that 
Anglican  clergy  were  prevented  from  discharging  the 
normal  duties  of  episcopate  and  priesthood  by  the  over- 
throw of  spiritual  authority  consequent  on  the  estab- 
lishment of  Royal  Supremacy  and  by  changes  in  the 


174  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

Prayer  Book  involving  defective  administration  of  Sac- 
raments, but  also  that  the  Orders  were  initially  invalid 
owing  to  changes  in  the  Ordinal  showing  defect  of  Cath- 
olic intention.  I  had  therefore  come  to  adopt  the 
Roman  grounds  for  rejection  of  them,  being  led  to  see 
the  case  more  clearly  by  the  reading  of  a  number  of 
books  by  Catholic  writers,  especially  some  of  the  essays 
of  Cardinal  Gasquet.* 

It  was  a  great  shock  to  me  to  learn  that  the  specifica- 
tion of  "the  work  of  a  Priest  (or  Bishop)  in  the 
Church  of  God  "  in  the  ordination  formula  was  not  in- 
serted until  1662,  and  that  this  fact  throws  doubt  on 
the  sufficiency  of  the  formula  used  previously :  yet  this 
sufficiency  I  still  assume.  Nevertheless  the  changes 
made  in  Cranmer's  Ordinal  of  1552,  the  companion  of 
the  heretical  Second  Prayer  Book,  in  use  after  1559, 
are  of  a  sort  which  indicate  that  the  words  used  must 
not  be  taken  too  literally.  Just  as  "  Seeing  that  this 
child  is  regenerate  "  may  be,  and  often  is,  interpreted, 
"  Seeing  this  child  is  not  regenerate  if  you  prefer  to 
think  so,"  and  as  "  The  Body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  given  for  thee "  may  mean  to  those  who 
wish,  "  Not  the  Body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but 
bread  to  be  eaten  in  remembrance,"  so  "  Receive  the 
Holy  Ghost  (for  the  work  of  a  Priest)  "  may  mean  no 
more  than  "  Submit  to  imposition  of  hands  implying 
no  transmission  of  sacramental  gifts,  in  order  to  secure 
a  license  as  a  Preacher." 

The  Ordinal  of  1552  was  a  substitute  and  can  only 

•  Especially  the  essays  on  Anglican  Ordinations  and  The 
Greek  Ordinal  in  England  under  the  Old  Religion. 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  175 

be  understood  by  comparison  with  what  it  superseded. 
The  Sarum  Pontifical,  like  all  Catholic  forms  of  ordina- 
tion, Eastern  as  well  as  Western,  created  Mass-priests. 
The  essential  matter  in  ordination  is  the  laying  on  of 
hands  with  prayer;  the  context  of  this,  word,  and  cere- 
monial, constitute  the  form  showing  with  what  special 
intention  and  significance  hands  are  imposed.  Priests 
are  set  apart  to  "  offer,"  to  absolve,  to  bless,  to  preach, 
and  to  rule ;  but  the  special  function  emphasized  by  the 
ritual  of  ordination  is  the  power  to  offer  the  unbloody 
sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  The  special  characteristic  of 
priesthood  is  sacrifice.  Other  functions  are  not  for- 
gotten. The  ministry  of  the  Word  as  well  as  Sacra- 
ments was  indicated  in  the  Sarum  Pontifical;  there  was 
symbolical  tradition  of  the  Bible  to  Bishops  as  well  as 
of  the  Chalice  and  Paten  to  Priests :  but  the  dominating 
and  central  thought  of  Catholic  Ordinals  is  that  the 
special  function  of  the  Christian  priesthood  is  the  offer- 
ing of  the  Eucharistic  Sacrifice. 

From  Cranmer's  Ordinal  of  1552,  as  from  his  Prayer 
Book  of  the  same  date,  every  reference  to  the  Eucha- 
ristic Sacrifice  was  expunged :  there  was  no  specific  ref- 
erence to  the  Eucharist,  nothing  but  the  vague  "  and 
Sacraments."  He  retained  everything  that  related  to 
the  ministry  of  the  Word,  and  enlarged  on  this,  defining 
the  duties  of  the  ministry  as  consisting  of  the  study  and 
preaching  of  Scripture  and  the  cultivation  of  domestic 
virtues.  He  commissioned  not  Mass-priests  but  mar- 
ried preachers. 

An  excellent  illustration  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the 
change  made  in  the  exhortation  to  ordjnands.  In  the 


176  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

old  Pontifical  the  special  point  is  thus  expressed :  "  To 
celebrate  Mass  and  consecrate  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ;  .  .  .  that  they  may  know  that  in  this  Sacra- 
ment they  receive  the  grace  of  consecrating  .  .  .  and 
may  acknowledge  that  they  have  received  the  power  of 
offering  pleasing  sacrifices,  since  to  them  pertains  the 
office  of  consecrating  the  Sacrament  of  Our  Lord's 
Body  and  Blood  upon  the  altar  of  God.  ...  In  this 
appears  the  excellency  of  the  priestly  office,  by  which 
the  Passion  of  Christ  is  daily  celebrated  upon  the 
altar."  Cranmer  left  nothing  of  this  sort.  Its  place 
was  taken  by  the  homily  of  Bucer.  "  Seeing  that  ye 
cannot  by  any  other  means  compass  the  doing  of  so 
weighty  a  work,  pertaining  to  the  salvation  of  man, 
but  with  doctrine  and  exhortation  taken  out  of  the  holy 
Scriptures,  and  with  a  life  agreeable  to  the  same ;  con- 
sider how  studious  ye  ought  to  be  in  reading  and  learn- 
ing the  Scriptures,  and  in  framing  the  manners 
both  of  yourselves  and  of  them  that  specially  per- 
tain unto  you,  according  to  the  rule  of  the  same 
Scriptures;  and  for  this  self-same  cause,  how  ye  ought 
to  forsake  and  set  aside  (as  much  as  you  may)  all 
worldly  cares  and  studies."  And  much  more  to  the 
same  effect. 

Cranmer's  determination  to  abolish  the  Sacrifice  of 
the  Mass  was  clearly  expressed  in  1552;  a  character- 
istic utterance  has  been  already  quoted.  It  was  gen- 
erally assumed  and  stated  under  Elizabeth  that  the 
English  clergy  were  no  "  Mass-priests."  The  opinion 
of  the  more  conservative  theologians  would  be  repre- 
sented by  Hooker, 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  177 

"  Seeing  then  that  sacrifice  is  now  no  part  of  the  Church 
ministry,  how  should  the  name  of  priesthood  be  thereunto 
rightly  applied  ?  .  .  .  The  Fathers  of  ';he  Church  .  .  . 
call  usually  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  priesthood  in  regard 
of  that  which  the  Gospel  hath  proportionable  to  ancient 
sacrifices,  namely,  the  communion  of  the  Blessed  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ,  although  it  have  properly  now  no  sacrifice. 
As  for  the  people,  when  they  hear  the  name,  it  draweth  no 
more  their  minds  to  any  cogitation  of  sacrifice  than  the  name 
of  a  senator  or  an  alderman  causeth  them  to  think  of  old 


Instructed  Anglicans  always  recognize  some  sort  of 
Eucharistic  Sacrifice,  and  emphasize  the  "  sacrifice  of 
ourselves  "  and  the  "  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiv- 
ing "  as  well  as  the  commemoration  of  the  "  Sacrifice 
once  offered  " ;  but  with  the  Prayer  Book  as  it  is,  they 
must  avoid  the  identification  of  sacrifice  with  the  acts 
of  oblation  and  consecration  of  the  bread  and  wine,  the 
main  point  of  the  traditional  doctrine.  Much  as  many 
of  them  would  wish  to  do  so,  they  are  tied  to  Cranmer's 
omissions.f 

To  those  who  believe  in  Mass-priests,  the  determina- 
tion of  the  relation  of  the  English  Ordinal  to  these  is 
decisive.  The  questions,  Did  the  Prayer  Book  continue 
the  Mass?  and  Did  the  Ordinal  continue  the  Priesthood? 
go  together.  To  all,  whether  or  not  they  believe  in  the 

•  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Book  V,  Chap.  Ixzviii,  Sec.  3. 

fFor  characteristic  statements,  see  Wordsworth  in  Re- 
sponsio  Archiepiscoporum  Angliae  ad  Litteras  Apostolicas 
Leonis  Papae  XIII  de  Ordinationibus,  Sec.  XI,  and  Gore, 
Body  of  Christ,  pp.  210-214  and  236  ff. 


178  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

Mass  and  the  Priesthood  as  its  correlative,  it  must  be 
quite  clear  that,  if  Cranmer  did  alter  the  Ordinal  in 
this  respect,  there  was  no  truth  in  the  claim  that  the 
old  Orders  had  been  continued,  and  that  his  formation 
of  a  new  ministry  was  as  radical  a  breach  with  the 
past  as  the  corresponding  acts  of  Luther  and  Calvin. 
There  is  no  irresistible  magic  in  the  imposition  of  epis- 
copal hands. 

When  an  Anglican  priest  is  ordained,  he  may  be,  and 
usually  is,  commissioned  by  use  of  the  words  "  Whoseso- 
ever sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and 
whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained,"  taken 
over  with  the  old  form  of  conferring  jurisdiction,  in 
the  new  Ordinal  made  central  in  the  rite.  This  ought 
to  seem  sufficient  guarantee  of  a  grant  of  power  of 
Absolution,  and  is  so  considered  by  most.  Yet  the  com- 
mentary of  custom  detracts  from  the  natural  meaning. 
This  practically  reduces  it  to,  "  If  you  think  this  com- 
missions you  to  hear  sacramental  confessions,  you  may 
hear  them  as  a  permissible  extra;  as  to  knowledge  of 
spiritual  medicine  and  surgery,  you  are  left  to  your 
own  devices."  Examination  of  the  canons  of  Moral 
Theology  suggest  that  there  is  something  doubtful 
about  a  commission  which  in  practice  is  taken  to  mean 
so  little  or  so  much,  and  often  to  mean  nothing  at 
all.  Doubt  about  the  Church's  doctrine  of  Confession 
and  Absolution  throws  analogous  doubt  on  the  commis- 
sion to  remit  and  retain  sins.*  Doubtful  doctrines  of 
the  Eucharist  and  Penance  imply  doubtful  Orders ;  and 

*  See  account  of  Round  Table  Conference  at  Fulham. 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  179 

cloubtful  Orders  are  not  such  as  are  conferred  by  the 
Catholic  Church. 

Another  important  change  was  in  the  form  of  oath 
required  of  Bishops  at  consecration.  Before  the  Refor- 
mation, a  Bishop  at  consecration  made  two  formal  pro- 
fessions, a  confession  of  faith,  and  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Pope  as  head  of  the  Church :  he  was  to  be  witness 
to  the  Incarnation,  and  was  to  be  united  with  the  Cath- 
olic episcopate,  inheriting  the  authority  of  the  Apostles. 
From  Cranmer's  Ordinal  these  were  omitted,  and  in 
place  was  substituted  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  King 
as  the  Church's  Supreme  Head.  The  new  Bishops  were 
primarily  royal  henchmen.  In  America  is  substituted 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Doctrine,  Discipline,  and 
Worship  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  effect 
a  pledge  of  loyalty  to  the  General  Convention.  This 
blurs  at  least  the  ancient  conception  of  the  episcopate, 
not  only  in  regard  to  the  recognition  of  the  spiritual, 
rather  than  the  temporal,  power  as  supreme,  but  also 
in  regard  to  the  witness  to  the  faith.  English  Bishops 
take  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Archbishop,  Archbishops 
to  the  King  only.  The  breach  of  continuity  in  the  con- 
ception of  ecclesiastical  authority  was  thus  reflected  in 
the  Ordinal. 

There  is  also  bearing  on  the  estimation  in  which  the 
Ordinal  is  held  in  the  prevailing  tendency  to  favor 
"  Open  Pulpit."  The  dominant  idea  of  the  Anglican 
Ordinal  is  the  sacrosanct  character  of  preaching. 
Priests  receive  the  Holy  Ghost  chiefly  for  the  ministry 
of  the  Word,  symbolized  by  the  tradition  of  the  Bible. 
Ordained  priests  only  have  full  right  to  preach;  and 


180  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

this  is  emphasized  as  their  characteristic  function.  The 
first  duty  impressed  on  newly-baptized  infants  is  "  to 
hear  sermons."  Deacons  receive  authority  to  "  read 
the  Gospel  in  the  Church  of  God,"  but  only  "  to  preach 
the  same  if  thereto  licensed  by  the  Bishop  himself." 
There  is  to  be  no  preaching  by  any  one  unordained ;  the 
laying  on  of  episcopal  hands  is  required  for  admission 
to  the  pulpit.  There  is  not  this  emphasis  on  preaching 
in  Catholic  Ordinals,  though  it  corresponds  to  Protes- 
tant forms  of  commissioning  a  "  Gospel-ministry." 
This  strict  hedging  of  the  pulpit  is  reinforced  by  pre- 
scription of  canons ;  there  is  no  similar  emphasis  on 
hedging  of  the  Altar.  Those  who  take  the  Ordinal  as 
providing  for  Open  Pulpit  but  Closed  Altar  ignore  its 
actual  character. 

The  idea,  however,  that  preaching  must  be  restricted 
to  a  solemnly  consecrated  priesthood  is  well-nigh  obso- 
lete. Deacons  are  keen  to  hold  forth,  in  and  out  of 
season,  with  or  without  the  Bishop's  license;  lay- 
readers,  especially  if  they  be  seminary  students  insti- 
gated by  courses  in  Homiletics,  become  itinerant  Chrys- 
ostoms,  often  "  exchanging  pulpits,"  and  flooding  their 
missions  with  torrents  of  eloquence  which  fortunately 
dry  up  when  once  they  are  ordained:  many  congrega- 
tions clamor  for  lay-speakers,  on  ordinary  as  well  as 
special  occasions,  and  care  little  for  the  opinions  of 
Liddon  or  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  on  abstruse  doctrinal 
points,  if  they  can  have  general  disparagement  of  all 
such  things  in  a  "  red-blooded  talk  "  by  some  eminent 
corporation  lawyer !  Never  was  the  narrowness  of 
"  clerical  bigotry  "  more  at  a  discount  in  public  speech 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  181 

as  contrasted  with  the  untethered  freedom  of  the  "  hon- 
est layman."  I  once  heard  the  Vicar  of  St.  Barnabas', 
Oxford,  contrast  the  Church's  theory  of  Orders  with 
the  notion  that  "  all  that  is  needed  to  make  a  preacher 
is  a  gift  of  gab  and  a  white  tie."  We  now  dispense  with 
the  white  tie !  "  Freedom  of  prophesying  "  is  inter- 
preted to  mean,  not  only,  that  all  shall  be  equally  free 
to  express  their  opinions  on  religious  subjects,  but  also, 
that  those  least  to  be  trusted  are  the  class  of  men 
who  have  been  solemnly  commissioned  to  do  so !  This 
demand  for  "  Open  Pulpit  "  proves  absence  of  belief 
in  the  necessity  of  a  special  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
for  preachers,  and  of  belief  that  the  priests  of  the  An- 
glican Ordinal  receive  one.  Context  of  custom  as  well 
as  literary  context  may  show  that  solemn  words  are 
used  without  power  to  mean,  even  if  with  intention  to 
mean,  all  that,  literally  understood,  they  express.  The 
spirit  killeth  when  the  letter  would  give  life.  The  real 
regard  of  many  for  the  significance  of  Ordination  would 
not  be  greater  than  that  expressed  by  Cranmer,  author 
of  the  Ordinal  in  1540,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry  made 
by  Henry  VIII. 

"  The  ministers  of  God's  Word  under  his  Majesty  be 
the  Bishops,  Parsons,  Vicars,  and  other  such  priests  as  be 
appointed  by  his  Highness  to  that  ministration  ...  be 
appointed,  assigned,  and  elected,  and  in  every  place,  by  the 
laws  and  orders  of  Kings  and  Princes.  In  the  admission 
of  many  of  these  officers  be  divers  comely  ceremonies  and 
solemnities  used,  which  be  not  of  necessity,  but  only  for  a 
good  order  and  seemly  fashion ;  for  if  such  offices  and  minis- 
trations were  committed  without  such  solemnity,  they  were 


182  ANGLICAN  ORDERS 

nevertheless  truly  committed.  And  there  is  no  more  promise 
of  God  that  grace  is  given  in  the  committing  of  ecclesiastical 
office,  than  it  is  in  the  committing  of  civil  office." 

This  opinion  of  Cranmer's  has  no  final  authority ;  yet 
there  is  much  corroboration  of  it  in  many  facts  that 
make  the  word  of  the  Ordinal  of  none  effect  through 
persistent  Anglican  tradition. 

In  attaching  so  great  importance  to  belief  in  Orders 
as  a  Sacrament  that  it  proved  to  be  decisive  in  making 
one  of  the  most  critical  decisions  of  my  life,  I  have 
merely  followed  and  practically  applied  a  line  of 
thought  emphasized  for  years.  In  1910  I  read  before 
a  clerical  gathering  in  Brooklyn  a  paper  on  The  Prin- 
ciple of  Orders,*  in  which  I  sought  to  indicate  the  rela- 
tion of  this  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. 

"  Our  attitude  toward  the  Principle  of  Orders,  and  toward 
the  relation  of  Orders  to  Unity  ...  is  one  on  which 
indifference  is  no  longer  possible.  We  must  believe  less 
than  we  have  concerning  our  ministry,  or  we  must  believe 
more:  and  in  either  case  we  must  know  what  we  believe, 
and  why  we  believe  it.  Moreover,  having  clear  convictions, 
we  are  bound  to  maintain  them;  because  either  way  they 
have  bearings  of  immense  practical  importance  upon  crying 
needs  of  our  time.  .  .  . 

"  The  immediate  future  is  likely  to  demonstrate  in  what 
direction  our  own  Church  is  moving;  and  that  move  one 
way  or  the  other  it  must.  It  occupies  a  middle  position  in 
Christendom,  and  hopes  to  use  this  position  to  mediate  for 
unity.  In  our  desire  to  show  '  malice  toward  none  and 
charity  for  all,'  we  have  been  loth  to  emphasize  differences. 

*  Published  in  Principles  of  Anglicanism. 


ANGLICAN  ORDERS  183 

We  have  gloried  in  our  duality  to  the  verge  of  duplicity; 
we  have  halted  between  two  opinions,  and  have  shown  un- 
mistakable symptoms  of  the  ailment  of  Laodicaea.  Yet 
we  must  declare  ourselves  plainly,  if  we  be  challenged  to 
choose  between  the  old  and  a  new  not  akin  to  the  old.  A 
choice  not  only  of  critical,  but  of  vital,  importance  lies 
before  us  in  the  consideration  of  what  we  believe,  what  we 
maintain,  and  what  we  abandon,  in  our  theories  of  the 
Christian  ministry;  for  belief  about  Orders  involves  belief 
about  Sacraments ;  and  belief  about  Sacraments,  belief  about 
the  Church;  and  that  belief  resolves  itself  into  the  answer 
we  give  to  the  one  decisive,  discriminating  question  of 
questions:  'What  think  ye  of  Christ?  Whose  Son  is 
He?'"* 

•  Principles  of  Anglicanism,  pp.  103,  123  f. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PREJUDICE    AGAINST    EOMANISM 

"  Chamberlain.  I  left  him  private, 

Full  of  sad  thoughts  and  troubles. 

Norfolk.  What's  the  cause  ? 

Cham.     It  seems  the  marriage  with  his  brother's  wife 

Has  crept  too  near  his  conscience. 
Nor.  No,  his  conscience 

Has  crept  too  near  another  lady." 

THE  reasons  given  for  abandoning  work  and  Orders 
have  not  been  directly  connected  with  Roman  Catholic 
claims.  They  have  related  quite  as  much  to  separation 
from  the  Greek  as  from  the  Latin  Communion:  it  was 
in  fact  consideration  of  the  relations  between  Easterns 
and  Anglicans  which  precipitated  the  decision.  At  the 
time  of  sending  a  letter  of  resignation  to  the  Presiding 
Bishop,  I  was  uncertain  whether  for  a  number  of 
reasons  I  ought  not  to  die  in  the  Communion  in  which 
I  had  been  reared,  although  I  could  no  longer  work  for 
its  perpetuation.  Nevertheless  for  three  years  I  had 
been  drawn  strongly  to  the  Roman  Communion,  as  a 
few  intimate  friends  knew ;  and  for  some  time  when  they 
had  been  saying,  as  I  had  always  said  myself,  "  Angli- 
canism may  be  difficult ;  but  Rome  is  impossible,"  I  had 
said,  "  It  is  Anglicanism  which  seems  impossible ;  and 
Rome,  though  difficult,  seems  inevitable."  So  strong 
had  been  the  Romeward  drift,  that  I  consulted  one  of 
184 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       185 

the  Bishops,  who  knew  all  the  facts,  as  to  whether  I  was 
uncandid  not  to  speak  of  this  in  my  formal  letter  of 
resignation,  which  I  had  not  done,  thinking  that  the 
Bishops  were  concerned  not  with  possibilities  but  with 
facts :  and,  in  personal  letters  to  the  Presiding  Bishop 
and  other  Bishops,  I  told  what  I  thought  would  ulti- 
mately happen,  offering  to  hasten  the  decision  if  it 
would  simplify  matters  in  dealing  with  my  case,  and 
giving  full  permission  to  make  the  fact  known  if  they 
saw  fit.  Nevertheless  it  was  not  until  August,  1919, 
that  I  saw  that  I  could  make  my  submission  ex  animo, 
although  I  postponed  action  in  order  that  my  resig- 
nation might  be  first  accepted,  that  there  might  be  no 
appearance  of  haste,  and  that  I  might  first  prepare  a 
full  statement  of  reasons  for  the  decision. 

The  de-Anglicanizing  and  the  Romanizing  processes 
overlapped  for  three  years ;  but  they  were  distinct,  and 
even  independent,  except  that  each  doubtless  accele- 
rated the  other.  Had  there  been  no  apparent  alterna- 
tive, I  should  probably  not  have  been  able  to  give  up 
my  old  faith.  While  I  recall  clearly  enough  the  suc- 
cessive stages  in  my  mental  processes,  I  find  that  mem- 
ory cannot  be  trusted  as  to  exact  dates.  To  determine 
these,  I  am  as  dependent  on  written  and  printed  records 
of  opinions  as  if  I  were  dealing  with  the  history  of 
another  person.  The  evidence  of  my  letters  is  surpris- 
ing. Strong  expressions  of  disaffection  with  Anglican- 
ism, and  of  recognition  of  the  power  in  Roman  Catholi- 
cism, occur  at  dates  earlier  than  I  remember  or  should 
have  thought  likely ;  and  recent  letters  show  hesitation 
on  certain  points  which,  if  I  trusted  my  memory  only, 


186      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

I  should  have  thought  settled  long  since.  It  is  quite 
clear,  however,  that  my  anti-Roman  prejudices  existed 
in  almost  full  force  in  1915,  and  that  there  was  rapid 
and  definite  Romanizing  afterward. 

The  account  given  of  antecedents  and  early  training 
has  shown  that  I  belonged  to  a  world  in  which  the 
Roman  Church  seemed  to  be  a  negligible  factor.  I 
recall  no  bitterness  against  it  in  the  people  I  knew: 
but  it  was  assumed  to  be  outside  the  purview  and  ex- 
perience of  Americans  like  ourselves.  Only  one  friend 
of  my  family  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  Mrs.  Edward 
Jones  of  Cleveland,  a  grand-niece  of  Fenimore  Cooper. 
She  was,  by  common  consent  of  her  friends,  the  best, 
as  well  as  cleverest,  woman  in  the  circle  in  which  she 
moved:  but,  though  her  friends  could  not  but  respect  a 
faith  which  made  her  what  she  was,  they  thought  it 
strange  that  she  should  be  a  Catholic,  and  when  a  Club 
of  ladies  of  which  she  was  president  attended  her  Re- 
quiem Mass,  they  thought  it  beautiful,  but  not  at  all 
of  their  world.  As  a  boy  in  my  late  teens  I  had  great 
admiration  for  Mrs.  Jones :  and  I  remember  that  once 
she  referred  to  her  Church,  of  which  she  seldom  spoke, 
in  a  way  that  assumed  that  I  would  understand  it.  I 
do  not  remember  at  all  what  the  remark  was;  but  it 
suggested  the  thought  in  a  way  I  never  forgot,  "  What 
if  some  day  I  too  should  become  a  Roman  Catholic." 
There  was  no  deep  impression:  but  it  has  never  been 
possible  for  me  to  have  any  great  dread  of  a  faith 
deliberately  adopted  by  one  whom  I  so  much  admired 
as  I  did  Mrs.  Edward  Jones. 

I  was  sixteen  or  seventeen  when  I  first  saw  the  inside 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       187 

of  a  Roman  Catholic  church.  My  mother  wished  to  go 
to  Mass  out  of  curiosity  and  took  me  with  her  to  the 
Cathedral  in  Cleveland.  I  only  recall  vaguely  that  it 
did  not  seem  to  me  so  impressive  as  services  at  St.  Paul's 
School,  because  it  was  unintelligible:  but  two  things  I 
never  forgot.  One  was  the  rapt  expression  of  a  young 
man  who  made  his  Co.nmunion,  and  the  other  was  the 
peroration  of  the  sermon.  Of  all  the  sermons  I  heard 
during  my  youth,  this  is  the  only  one  of  which  exact 
words  stick  in  my  memory.  They  were :  "  If  any  one 
says  that  the  parochial  schools  are  not  as  good  as  the 
public  schools,  he  is  a  calumniator;  and  he  is  an  ass  to 
calumniate."  I  much  preferred  the  style  of  Dr.  Coit, 
and  concluded  that  Roman  Catholic  preaching  was  de- 
cidedly inferior  to  Episcopalian.  These  slight  incidents 
comprise  the  whole  of  my  contact  with  Roman  Catholics 
during  boyhood. 

There  was  little  more  in  subsequent  years.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1892,  just  after  my  first  term  in  Oxford,  I  was 
in  London  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Cardinal  Man- 
ning, and  out  of  curiosity  went  to  the  lying-in-state  at 
the  Archbishop's  Residence  in  Westminster.  There  I 
had  a  strange  experience  of  which  I  have  never  spoken 
to  any  one  but  my  sister,  which  suggested  the  thought 
that  I  might,  or  even  ought,  some  day  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  in  so  forcible  a  way,  that  the  memory 
was  indelible,  though  there  was  no  practical  consequence 
of  any  sort.  At  that  time  I  was  making  it  my  busi- 
ness to  learn  all  I  could  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
to  breathe  her  atmosphere.  I  was  gaining  great  en- 
thusiasm for  all  she  stood  for,  and  while  always  respect- 


188      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

ful  toward  the  great  Roman  Communion,  was  learning 
clearly  the  reasons  for  not  accepting  Roman  claims.  I 
never  entered  any  Roman  church  in  England  except 
once  or  twice  to  stroll  into  the  Brompton  Oratory. 

In  1895,  just  after  ordination  to  the  diaconate  in 
Paris,  I  spent  the  last  four  weeks  of  Lent  in  Italy. 
There  I  had  glimpses  of  the  life,  as  well  as  of  the  paint- 
ing and  architecture,  in  churches  of  Venice  and  Flor- 
ence, and  made  it  my  business  to  observe  what  I  could 
of  things  Roman  in  Rome.  I  made  my  Communions 
regularly  at  the  English  and  American  churches,  but 
tried  to  keep  a  Roman  Holy  Week  and  Easter.  I  went 
regularly  to  the  churches  of  the  Station  for  the  day, 
was  at  St.  Peter's  on  Palm  Sunday,  for  Tenebrae  on 
Wednesday,  and  for  Easter  when  Cardinal  Rampolla 
celebrated  at  High  Mass ;  visited  no  fewer  than  twenty- 
five  churches  on  Maundy  Thursday;  the  Scala  Santa 
and  Santa  Croce-in-Jerusalem  on  Good  Friday ;  and  St. 
John  Lateran  on  Holy  Saturday  for  services  lasting 
from  six  until  two,  the  striking  of  the  fire  from  flint 
for  the  Paschal  candle,  baptisms  of  heretics,  and  ordi- 
nations to  all  minor  Orders  and  of  about  forty  priests. 
I  was  determined  to  join  devoutly  in  all  I  could,  but 
expected  to  encounter  obstacles  at  which  my  devotion 
would  have  to  be  held  abruptly  in  check.  To  my  amaze- 
ment I  discovered  little  to  evoke  my  vigilant  Protes- 
tantism. In  the  Confiteor  I  balked  at  confession  to  the 
Saints,  but  as  it  went  on  et  vobis  fratres  (et  tibi  pater), 
it  occurred  to  me  that  there  was  no  intentional  idolatry, 
and  that  it  was  simply  equivalent  to  "  in  the  sight  of 
the  whole  company  of  Heaven,"  with  which  I  was  famil- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       189 

iar  in  the  Confession  at  Compline  used  in  Oxford  and 
Shepton!  So  of  various  other  things.  There  was 
little  to  disturb  my  delight  in  the  ancient  Offices  as 
well  as  I  could  follow  them,  although  I  looked  askance 
at  notices  of  indulgences  and  exposition  of  relics  of 
doubtful  authenticity.  On  the  whole,  I  was  agreeably 
disappointed  at  not  finding  things  Roman  as  super- 
stitious as  I  had  expected,  although  I  felt  the  Holy 
Week  observances  to  be  inferior  to  Anglican  in  con- 
fusing the  strict  sequence  of  events.*  Nothing  marred 
my  Anglican  complacency.  I  ascribed  the  absence  of 
deplorable  modern  superstitions  in  the  great  basilicas 
to  the  fact  that  ancient  traditions  were  kept  by  force 
of  local  association,  as  in  Milan  by  the  potent  memory 
of  St.  Ambrose;  yet  I  did  not  doubt  their  existence  in 
ordinary  churches.  Idolatrous  cult  of  saints  was  what 
I  expected  to  find.  Yet  in  the  great  churches  I  felt 
much  at  home  and  felt  that  they  measured  up  fairly 
well  to  the  standards  of  the  Oxford  Movement !  I  came 
away  from  Rome  feeling  that  after  all  Rome  was  not 
wholly  bad,  and  convinced  that  Roman  Catholicism  was 
best  for  Italians,  Spaniards,  and  French.  The  little 
experience  was  helpful  later  in  giving  better  appre- 
ciation of  much  that  I  read,  and  in  strengthening  my 
wish  to  be  fair  and  sympathetic  toward  Roman  Catholi- 

*  E.g.  my  organ  of  exact  chronology  was  irritated  by  antici- 
pation of  Easter  at  Tenebrae  on  Wednesday,  although  the 
shuffling  of  the  feet  for  the  earthquake  and  appearance  of 
the  candle  from  behind  the  altar  appealed  to  me  as  dramatic 
symbolism :  the  "  sepulchres  "  for  the  Reserved  Sacrament  on 
Maundy  Thursday  seemed  to  carry  one  on  to  Saturday;  and 
Good  Friday  seemed  to  be  depressed  between  two  festivals. 


190      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

cism  and  to  mitigate  the  sharpness  of  Protestant 
prejudice.  Yet  I  had  strong  anti-Roman  convictions 
chiefly  on  historical  grounds. 

For  ten  years  after  this,  I  had  no  contact  with 
Roman  Catholicism,  knowing  few  Catholics  and  them 
very  slightly,  and  never  entering  one  of  their  churches 
except  once  on  a  vacation  when  no  Episcopal  church 
was  accessible.  I  was  reading  much,  becoming  some- 
what better  informed  on  some  matters  of  Roman  con- 
troversy, modifying  my  views  of  papal  history  in  such 
a  degree  as  would  be  represented  by  the  difference  be- 
tween Milman  and  Creighton  (or  Ranke  and  Pastor)  : 
I  read  much  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  feeling  that  the 
racy  details  of  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi  did  not  essentially  alter 
the  substantial  accuracy  of  the  edifying  journal  of 
Pallavicini :  I  took  up  the  study  of  the  Vatican  Council, 
expecting  to  learn  of  many  scandals  from  Janus  and 
Mr.  Gladstone,  but  ended  with  the  feeling  that  it  was 
not  so  bad  after  all,  and  that  the  actual  carefully- 
guarded  dogma  afforded  no  difficulty  to  those  who 
believed  in  the  Papacy.  I  saw  plainly  that  if  one 
accepted  the  Papacy  as  integral  to  the  Church,  infalli- 
bility, as  defined,  followed  as  simple  and  obvious  conse- 
quence. I  was  also  beginning  to  have  great  admiration 
for  Leo  XIII,  although  I  did  not  study  his  Encyclicals 
as  carefully  as  I  did  later. 

On  the  whole,  I  was  somewhat  less  ignorant  of  Roman 
Catholicism  when  I  went  abroad  for  the  summer  of 
1905.  The  chief  object  of  this  trip,  however,  was  to 
learn  something  at  first-hand  of  the  Greek  Church, 
partly  to  stimulate  my  special  interest  in  everything 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       191 

Eastern-Orthodox,  partly  to  strengthen  my  belief,  fre- 
quently expressed  in  lectures,  that  the  existence  and  his- 
tory of  the  Eastern  Churches  was  the  great  disproof  of 
Roman  contentions.  I  felt  strongly  that  Constanti- 
nople was  the  chief  outer  defence  of  Canterbury ;  that 
the  Russian  Church  afforded  one  of  the  chief  bulwarks 
of  the  Anglican:  that  England  and  America  were  best 
defended  from  Roman  aggression  by  strategic  war  in 
the  Balkans. 

Yet  on  this  trip  I  had  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which  forcible  impressions  come  where  and  when 
least  expected.  On  June  29,  I  spent  the  day  in  Kadi- 
Keui  (Chalcedon),  carefully  looking  up  all  remains  of 
the  days  of  the  Fourth  Council,  having  previously  dis- 
covered the  Chalcedonian  marbles  in  the  Suleimanieh 
Mosque  in  Constantinople  and  inspected  the  mummy 
of  St.  Euphemia,  patron-saint  of  the  Church  of  the 
Council,  in  the  Patriarcheion.  At  the  new  Cathedral 
in  Kadi-Keui  I  had  a  pleasant  experience.  A  Greek 
priest  who  was  showing  me  about,  asked  through  the 
dragoman  whether  I  was  "  Catholic  or  Protestant."  On 
my  replying  "  Anglican,"  he  said,  "  Oh,  then  we  are 
great  friends;  come  home  with  me  for  coffee."  This 
was  a  little  thing,  but  seemed  significant  proof  of 
Eastern  backing  of  the  Anglican  position.*  Perhaps 
there  never  would  have  been  a  moment  when  I  would 

*  I  met  no  priests  in  Constantinople.  I  had  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  the  Patriarch  from  the  Archimandrite  Tek- 
nopoulos  of  London,  with  whom  I  had  been  in  correspondence 
for  several  years,  but  had  not  presented  it,  having  no  suitable 
raiment  with  me  for  calling  on  patriarchs. 


192      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

have  felt  more  the  futility  of  Roman  pretensions.  Yet 
on  leaving  the  Greek  church  and  the  friendly  priest,  I 
went  to  look  in  at  the  great  Franciscan  church  close 
by,  entering  during  the  High  Mass  for  the  festival  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  There  seemed  to  me  something 
specially  impudent  in  setting  up  this  Latin  church  in 
Chalcedon  with  its  memories  of  Canon  XXVIII,  and  I 
was  not  predisposed  to  be  favorably  impressed.  Yet  I 
knew  at  once  that  there  was  something  more  alive  in  this 
Latin  church  than  in  any  of  the  many  Greek  churches 
which  I  had  been  haunting  during  the  preceding  fort- 
night. I  had  to  admit  to  myself  afterwards  that  of  all  I 
saw  in  the  East,  the  one  place  which  seemed  instinct 
with  missionary  vitality  was  the  one  seat  of  Romanism 
I  entered  there :  and  I  have  never  been  able  to  shake  off 
the  impression  made  by  that  Franciscan  church  at  Kadi- 
Keui,  although  I  came  home  to  lecture  with  more  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Eastern  Church,  and  to  emphasize  more 
than  ever  the  supposed  confutation  of  Petrine  assump- 
tion by  the  C1  ^Icedonian  assertion,  "  The  fathers  gave 
prerogatives  of  honor  to  the  Bishop  of  the  Elder  Rome, 
because  it  was  the  Imperial  City." 

Later  in  the  summer,  I  spent  ten  days  in  Rome,  pay- 
ing special  attention  to  mediaeval  associations,  storing 
up  memories  for  subsequent  rumination,  though  less  in- 
terested than  I  had  been  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  I 
also  visited  various  German  and  Austrian  churches, 
being  especially  impressed  by  services  in  St.  Stephen's, 
Vienna,  and  in  the  churches  of  Cologne.  There  seemed 
to  be  a  hearty  evangelical  tone  which  I  ascribed  to  the 
indirect  influence  of  Luther!  On  this  trip,  I  was  mak- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM      193 

ing  a  special  study  of  the  development  of  the  cult  of 
Our  Lady  as  it  appears  in  art.  In  early  mosaics  and 
paintings,  Our  Lord  is  always  central  and  dominating, 
the  Blessed  Virgin  at  one  side  and  subordinate :  in  later 
ones  the  size  of  her  figure  and  her  position  approximate 
His,  until  they  are  equal  as  in  the  Coronation  in  Santa 
Maria  Maggiore:  later  still  hers  is  the  larger  central 
figure,  the  Madonna  enthroned,  and  His,  the  Child, 
though  with  the  Divine  halo,  subordinate.  I  was  dis- 
posed to  see  in  this  a  dangerous  tendency  in  "  modern 
Rome."  In  some  twenty  of  the  Roman  churches  too 
I  examined  indulgenced  prayers,  finding  many  ad- 
dressed to  saints  for  direct  blessings  with  no  suggestion 
of  comprecation.  I  remember  especially  one  addressed 
to  St.  Gregory  imploring  him  to  convert  Anglicans. 
The  experiences  of  this  summer  dissipated  some  preju- 
dices and  confirmed  others. 

On  the  voyage  homeward,  I  shared  a  state-room  with 
two  priests,  a  Belgian  Capucin  and  a  German  Carmel- 
ite; and  with  the  former  I  became  great  friends.  I 
talked  with  him  of  many  things,  among  others  of  my 
liking  what  I  saw  in  German  churches  better  than  much 
that  I  had  seen  in  Italian.  I  spoke  apologetically  fear- 
ing to  offend  him,  at  which  he  seemed  surprised. 
"  Don't  you  know,"  he  asked,  "  that  every  northerner 
feels  that  way?  Did  you  ever  hear  that  St.  Alphonsus 
Liguori  wished  missionaries  to  convert  the  heathen  in 
the  Papal  States?  "  In  various  ways  he  intimated  that, 
among  the  staunchest  believers  in  Roman  Catholic  prin- 
ciples, there  was  free  criticism  of  many  practical  appli- 
cations of  them,  tending  to  disabuse  me  of  the  notion 


194      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

that  among  Roman  Catholics  all  discussion  and  criti- 
cism are  stifled,  and  nothing  permitted  but  blind  sub- 
mission to  authority.  I  recall  few  details  of  the  con- 
versations with  him ;  but  it  was  my  first  experience  of  the 
varied  delights  and  surprises  of  intercourse  with  a  well- 
educated  priest ;  and  I  was  much  influenced  by  him  in 
several  ways,  although  I  cannot  clearly  trace  the 
manner  of  it. 

During  my  life  in  New  York,  I  had  no  contact  with 
Roman  Catholics,  although  constantly  in  touch  with 
Eastern-Orthodox,  chiefly  the  clergy  of  the  Russian 
Cathedral  and  M.  Lodygensky,  the  Russian  Consul- 
General.  But  I  was  reading  many  books  by  Catholic 
writers,  especially  French  historians,  making  much  use 
of  Duchesne  and  Batiffol:  and  it  was  a  hobby  of  mine 
that  we  had  much  more  to  learn  from  Catholic  writers 
than  from  rationalizing  Germans,  whose  authority  was 
slavishly  followed  by  many  in  America  and  England.  I 
delivered  several  lectures  each  year  on  religion  in  mod- 
ern Germany,  the  chief  points  of  which  were  that  the 
rationalizing  process  inaugurated  by  Luther,  essen- 
tially antagonistic  to  the  supernatural,  had  actually  led 
to  scepticism  and  paganism  in  Germany;  but  that  the 
tide  had  turned  and  "  criticism  "  was  proclaiming  as 
new  discoveries  various  matters  of  traditional  belief  in 
the  Church ;  that  the  only  way  to  understand  Ritschl 
and  Harnack  was  in  terms  of  Strauss  and  Baur;  also 
that  the  disintegration  of  German  Protestantism  had 
resulted  in  exhibiting  Roman  Catholicism  as  the  one 
great  religious  power  in  the  various  German  States. 
So  far  as  books  went,  I  was  as  much  influenced  by 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       195 

French  writers  as  by  any,  read  Loisy  without  assent, 
and  wholly  approved  Pius  X's  discernment  of  the  char- 
acter and  tendency  of  Modernism  and  his  unhesitating 
condemnation  of  it.  I  greatly  deplored  the  influence  of 
German  "  scholarship  "  in  Oxford,  and  was  in  sympathy 
with  criticisms  of  the  lack  of  authority  in  the  English 
Church,  which  I  happened  to  see  in  the  Tablet. 

After  going  to  Delaware,  I  thought  little  of  Roman 
Catholicism  except  to  deplore  the  fact  that  being 
"  Roman,"  it  could  not  ipso  facto  be  really  Catholic, 
and  hence  not,  in  the  most  effective  way,  American. 
My  great  objection  to  it  was  that  as  "  Roman,"  rigidly 
forced  into  an  Italian  mould,  and  dominated  by  an 
Italian  oligarchy,  it  could  not  represent  Catholicism  in 
the  best  form  for  American  people,  no  matter  how  ef- 
fective it  might  be  for  those  living  in  Mediterranean 
countries.  I  believed  Anglicanism  to  be  the  best 
Catholicism  for  English-speaking  peoples.  I  had  heard 
that  American  Roman  Catholics  had  an  independent 
stamp  of  their  own,  not  wholly  appreciated  in  the 
Curia ;  and  I  believed  they  had  many  excellences  due  to 
their  special  environment :  but  I  could  not  think  of 
them  as  best  equipped  to  teach  religion  to  Americans, 
except  to  those  newly  arrived  from  Roman  Catholic 
countries.  I  doubted  whether  Roman  Catholics  could 
be  the  best-trained  Americans,  although  wholly  out  of 
sympathy  with  a  tendency  to  exclude  them  from  the 
highest  political  offices,  and  wholly  in  sympathy  with 
their  wish  to  train  their  children  in  their  own  schools. 
While  not  believing  their  teaching  the  best  possible,  I 
thought  they  set  the  rest  of  us  a  good  example  in  their 


196      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

insistence  on  the  necessity  of  religious  training.  I  was 
in  sympathy  with  much  of  their  criticism  of  the  religious 
tendency  of  the  public  schools.  It  is  impossible  to 
overestimate  the  value  of  reverent  reading  of  Psalms 
and  other  parts  of  Scripture  and  devout  repetition  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer;  but  the  inevitable  impression  given 
that  nothing  more  than  this  is  necessary  is  harmful.  In 
thinking  of  the  effects  produced  on  American  life  by 
different  religious  bodies,  I  was  always  disposed  to  mag- 
nify the  usefulness  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

My  prejudices  against  Roman  Catholicism  as  un- 
American,  or  as  not  best  American,  received  a  jolt 
about  1911  from  reading  some  utterances  of  Cardinal 
Gibbons.  Here  was  one  speaking  with  authority  and 
obvious  effect  in  behalf  of  American  ideals  and  of  the 
dependence  of  these  on  religious  belief.  After  that,  I 
noticed  every  report  of  the  Cardinal's  utterances  and 
read  his  books.  I  saw  plainly  that  he  was  a  great  Ameri- 
can, as  I  also  believed  Archbishop  Ireland  to  be:  and 
I  wondered  if  they  could  be  typical  of  the  actual  in- 
fluence of  Roman  Catholicism  in  American  life.  Early 
in  1912,  I  went  to  call  on  the  Cardinal  with  Dr.  Man- 
ning to  ask  his  interest  in  the  Conference  on  Faith  and 
Order.  His  kindness  to  us  on  that  occasion  won  my 
personal  veneration,  and  thereafter,  more  than  ever,  I 
was  studying  his  career  and  activities  as  a  possible 
illustration  of  the  actual  influence  of  American 
Catholicism.  It  gradually  dawned  on  me  that  Catholi- 
cism coming  from  Italy  by  way  of  Ireland  might  pos- 
sibly be  naturalized  and  become  as  truly  and  loyally 
American  as  Catholicism  from  England  or  anywhere 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       197 

else:  and  I  had  already  shrewd  suspicions  that,  what- 
ever its  degree  and  shade  of  Americanism,  it  was  cer- 
tainly full  as  Catholic !  Still  I  always  came  back  to 
the  thought  that  its  official  use  of  Latin  hopelessly 
handicapped  it  in  competition  with  Cathob'cism  using 
the  English  tongue. 

About  1912,  I  was  reading  and  rereading  a  number 
of  books  by  English  Catholic  writers,  especially  some 
of  Lord  Acton's  and  Wilfrid  Ward's.  When  I  had  fin- 
ished the  latter's  Life  of  Newman,  I  remember  saying, 
"  On  the  whole,  I  am  more  in  sympathy  with  Newman 
than  with  Keble  and  Pusey."  At  that  time  I  was  being 
disillusioned  about  Anglican  Catholicity;  and  it  was 
then  that  I  saw  the  force  of  some  of  Newman's  histori- 
cal analogies  which  had  formerly  struck  me  as  absurd. 
He  compared  Anglicans  to  Novatians,  Donatists,  Semi- 
Arians,  Monophysites.  The  aptness  of  these  analogies 
in  relation  to  different  points  suddenly  came  home  to 
me.*  Details  are  not  clear;  but  I  know  that  from  this 
time  I  felt  that  there  was  more  to  be  said  for  High 
Church  Anglicans  who  "  went  over  "  than  I  had  hither- 
to assumed.  In  lecturing  on  the  Oxford  Movement,  I 
always  maintained  that  Newman  and  the  rest  had 
obeyed  their  consciences,  done  what  they  wished,  and 
emphatically  asserted  that  they  never  felt  regrets :  hence 
their  action  was  right  and  not  to  be  criticized.  Never- 
theless I  maintained  that  they  did  not  represent  the 
most  sound  and  stable  elements  in  the  English  Church. 

*  One  illustration  he  uses  I  do  not  understand;  the  com- 
parison of  the  Church  of  England  to  Samaria.  I  can  give 
poor  reasons  for  this,  but  am  sure  that  I  miss  the  main  point. 


198      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

I  contrasted  them  unfavorably  with  Keble,  Pusey, 
Church,  and  Liddon.  My  three  stock  examples  of  the 
kind  of  men  who  "  went  to  Rome  "  were  Newman,  W. 
G.  Ward,  and  F.  W.  Faber,  attracted  respectively  by 
overemphasis  on  Church  authority,  by  mere  logic,  and 
by  picturesque  devotions.  They  were  all  good  and  able 
men,  but  not  quite  normal.  I  had  a  string  of  illustra- 
tions of  peculiarities  and  of  what  I  considered  false 
judgments,  not  collected  maliciously  or  with  any  con- 
scious unfairness,  but  as  evidence  that  ought  not  to  be 
disregarded  that  these  men  were  not  altogether  the 
equals  of  those  who,  in  the  same  situation,  stood  by  the 
English  Church.*  I  talked  of  these  things  somewhat 
with  Dr.  Manning ;  but  I  think  with  no  one  else.  Grow- 
ing sympathy  with  those  who  "  went  over  "  was  coinci- 
dent with  increasing  irritation  at  Anglican  ambiguity. 
During  the  winter  of  1913-14  I  was  in  North  Africa 
with  headquarters  at  Tunis  from  the  Epiphany  until 
Ash  Wednesday.  On  the  first  Sunday,  I  went  to  the 
English  Chapel,  in  the  churchyard  of  which  the  author 
of  Home,  Sweet  Home  was  first  buried.  A  C.M.S.  chap- 
lain preached  on  the  continuity  of  Gospel  truth  through 

*  It  is  therefore  altogether  just  that  my  old  friends  have 
recently  been  questioning  my  own  sanity.  How  can  one,  they 
have  asked,  with  chances  to  learn  the  best  life  in  the  Anglican 
Communion,  ever  prefer  anything  else?  It  can  only  be  that 
he  has  lost  his  mind  or  his  character;  and  the  former  is  the 
more  charitable  assumption.  This  is  all  quite  fair,  as  judging 
me  by  my  own  old  standards,  but  in  being  relegated  to  the 
awkward  squad  of  the  feeble-minded,  it  is  some  comfort  to 
reflect  in  what  company,  on  my  own  showing  in  the  days  of 
Anglican  complacency,  I  find  myself. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       199 

St.  Paul,  Luther,  John  Wesley,  and  Charles  Simeon. 
There  was  a  Celebration  of  High  Matins,  at  the  end 
of  which  a  benediction  was  pronounced,  and  the  choir 
and  most  of  the  congregation  left.  Then  followed,  for 
the  handful  remaining,  the  monthly  Lord's  Supper,  cele- 
brated reverently,  but  with  an  unconscious  slurring  of 
every  portion  which  represents  the  ancient  Liturgy  and 
great  emphasis  on  all  the  Reformation  additions.  I  was 
amazed  to  discover  how  utterly  Zwinglian  the  Prayer 
Book  could  be  made,  never  having  heard  such  a  render- 
ing of  it  before.  My  first  thought  was,  how  outrageous 
for  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  to  let  his 
Protestant  prejudices  make  him  so  disguise  the  Prayer 
Book's  meaning;  my  second,  that  he  was  using  the 
Prayer  Book  as  it  stood,  simply  laying  emphasis  uncon- 
sciously and  conscientiously,  on  parts  that  seemed  to 
him  specially  important.  This  was  precisely  what  I  did 
myself.  He  and  I  had  the  same  method,  only  we  laid 
our  eclectic  emphasis  differently.  I  could  not  doubt 
that  he  was  as  convinced  of  being  a  "  Prayer  Book 
Churchman  "  as  I  was.  The  most  obvious  illustration 
of  the  difference  between  us  was  in  the  mode  of  adminis- 
tering Communion.  When  possible,  I  was  in  the  habit 
of  repeating  the  whole  formula, — the  ancient  words  re- 
tained in  the  First  Prayer  Book  with  the  Zwinglian  sub- 
stitute of  the  Second  which  the  Elizabethan  Book  com- 
bined— to  each  communicant.  When  there  were  many 
communicants  and  this  was  impracticable,  I  invariably 
repeated  the  ancient  words,  "  The  Body  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  which  was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy 
body  and  soul  to  everlasting  life,"  to  each,  saying, 


200      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

"  Take  and  eat  this  in  remembrance  that  Christ  died  for 
thee  and  be  thankful  "  for  every  five  or  six.  The  Tunis 
chaplain  did  just  the  other  thing.  Before  beginning 
to  administer,  he  hurriedly  recited  the  ancient  words, 
and  then  to  each  communicant  said  the  other  part  of 
the  formula,  often  using  only  the  words  "  Take  and  eat 
this."  The  effect  was  precisely  what  the  revisers  of 
1552  intended,  to  give  the  impression  that  the  "  me- 
morial bread,"  whatever  it  might  be,  was  not  to  be 
thought  of  as  actually  the  Body  of  Christ.  It  was  the 
most  flagrant  exhibition  of  the  sort  I  had  ever  seen ;  but 
in  fairness  I  had  to  recognize  that  the  chaplain  was 
merely  following  my  own  method  with  a  difference.  He 
taught  me  better  to  understand  clergy  of  his  type,  and 
of  my  own.  We  were  diametrically  opposed  on  matters 
of  fundamental  importance,  but  quite  honest  in  using 
what  the  Church  provided,  which  was  however  of  so  two- 
fold a  character  as  to  be  susceptible  of  exactly  opposite 
interpretations.*  The  Lord's  Supper  in  the  Tunis 
chapel  made  the  same  impression  as  the  Sacrament  in 
any  Protestant  congregation :  the  effect  of  it  all,  as  an 
exhibition  of  lack  of  faith  in  the  Eucharistic  Reality, 

*  I  always  tried  to  use  the  Prayer  Book  loyally  and  exactly. 
I  never  consciously  slurred  anything  except  "  Ye  shall  call 
upon  them  to  hear  sermons  " !  But  the  Tunis  experience  set 
me  to  scrutinizing  my  use  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  I  saw 
how  much  unconscious  emphasis  I  used,  e.g.  "but  chiefly 
ye  shall  provide,"  "  seeing  now  that  this  child  is  regenerate," 
"  the  Body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  "  that  He  may  dwell  in 
us  and  we  in  Him,"  "  with  all  Thy  whole  Church,"  etc.  I 
also  noticed  more  carefully  the  Reformation  "  Exhortations," 
which  I  used  as  prescribed,  but  was  apt  to  hurry  over  as  of 
comparative  unimportance. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       201 

was   utterly   depressing.      That   afternoon   I   went   to 
Benediction  in  the  Catholic  Cathedral  and  felt  better! 

After  that,  although  I  went  to  the  English  chapel 
for  the  infrequent  Communions,  I  adopted  the  Cathedral 
as  my  parish-church,  was  usually  present  at  two  Masses 
on  Sundays,  attended  weddings,  funerals,  and  catechiz- 
ings,  and  heard  a  series  of  admirable  sermons  by  Mon- 
signor  Pons  on  the  Sanctity  of  Family  Life.  These 
were  given  at  the  "  Men's  Mass  "  when  the  body  of  the 
Cathedral  was  crowded  with  men;  and  the  Archbishop 
(Monsignor  Combes)  was  present.  At  these  services  I 
came  to  appreciate  the  use  of  one  ecclesiastical  lan- 
guage. I  liked  the  familiar  Latin  of  the  Mass  and  of 
the  Psalms  and  Canticles  at  Vespers  and  found  its  use 
in  hymns.  On  the  first  Sunday,  the  hymn  was  Adeste 
fideles,  which  I  happened  to  know;  and  so,  though  hav- 
ing no  book,  I  was  able  to  join  lustily  with  the  French, 
Italians,  and  Maltese,  who  formed  the  congregation. 
It  was  the  same  way  in  the  O  Salutaris  Hostia  and 
Tantum  ergo  at  Benediction.*  During  the  whole  of  my 
stay  in  Tunis  I  found  the  Cathedral  services  restful  and 
strengthening  and  felt  more  entirely  at  home  in  church 
than  at  any  time  I  could  remember.  So  in  African 
churches  elsewhere,  at  St.  Monica's  in  Souk  Ahras 
(Thagaste),  St.  Augustine's  Cathedral  in  Hippone,  the 
churches  in  Bone,  Kairouan,  Sfax,  and  especially  the 
Primatiale  at  Carthage.  There  was  nothing  disturbing 

•  It  was  in  Tunis  that  I  heard  0  Salutaris  Hostia  sung  to 
Beethoven's  "  Germany,"  which  I  afterward  adopted  as  the 
tune  for  0  Saving  Victim,  invariably  sung  at  Eucharists  at 
Bishopstead  and  Birchmere. 


202      PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM 

in  the  way  of  the  superstitious  devotions  of  "  modern 
Rome."  My  theory  was  that  this  exceptional  state  of 
things  was  accounted  for  by  the  strength  of  the  great 
African  traditions.  Archbishop  Combes,  who  had  been 
St.  Augustine's  successor  in  Hippone  from  which  he  was 
translated  to  become  St.  Cyprian's  successor  in  Car- 
thage, could  not  ignore  the  standards  set  by  these  heroes 
of  the  Church's  earlier  days.  He  and  his  people  were 
Catholics  and  not  distinctly  "  Roman  "  at  all. 

Later  I  saw  various  churches  in  Sicily  and  Naples 
and  went  to  Mass  in  some  of  them,  never  discovering 
anything  disturbing  to  my  evangelical  standards.  I 
reflected  often  how  fortunate  I  was  to  have  formed  my 
impressions  of  things  Roman  in  places  where,  for  one 
reason  or  another,  the  innovations  of  mediaeval  and 
modern  "  Rome  "  were  held  in  check :  in  the  ancient 
Roman  basilicas,  in  Milan,  in  Africa,  where  ancient 
tradition  was  cogent ;  in  France,  where  Gallican  tradi- 
tions were  influential ;  in  Germany  affected  by  Protes- 
tant Evangelicalism;  in  Belgium,  where  I  knew  some- 
thing of  Bruges  and  Louvain,  and  had  a  high  opinion 
of  the  clergy  from  the  one  I  knew  and  from  reading 
Cardinal  Mercier's  Conferences  sent  me  years  ago  by 
Dr.  Huntington  Richards.  I  could  imagine  reasons  for 
superiority  in  these  places  to  the  ordinary  rank  and 
file  of  Roman  Catholic  churches.  It  was  not  until  two 
years  ago  that  it  dawned  upon  me  that  I  was  forever 
discovering  exceptions  and  had  never  yet  seen  a  single 
example  of  what  I  supposed  to  be  the  rule!  I  gasped 
at  the  thought  that  these  Catholic  exceptions  were  the 
invariable  consequence  of  Roman  rule;  and  that  the 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  ROMANISM       203 

bugbears  were  simply  those  of  my  Protestant  imagina- 
tion. From  1914  must  I  date  the  growing  suspicion 
that  Roman  Catholic  might  not  be  so  complete  a  con- 
tradiction in  terms  as  I  had  thought.  When  I  came 
home  in  1914,  I  told  friends  that  my  trip  had 
"  spoiled  "  me,  specifying  that  it  had  revived  all  my 
tastes  for  ecclesiastical  archaeology,  which  had  been  dor- 
mant since  coming  to  Delaware,  and  made  me  keen  to 
spend  time  about  the  Mediterranean.  What  I  did  not 
say,  or  recognize  till  later,  was  that  the  winter  in  the 
Cathedral  in  Tunis  had  made  it  impossible  for  me  ever 
to  be  content  with  the  ways  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  I  went  about  my  work  as  usual ;  but  it  had 
lost  sense  of  full  reality. 


CHAPTER  X 

ATTRACTION    TO    ROMANISM 

HOWEVER  much  I  may  have  liked  the  Church  in 
North  Africa,  I  tried  to  remember  always  that  my  work 
was  in  Delaware.  Yet  I  was  not  able  to  keep  clear  of 
the  Roman  question.  In  1915,  there  was  an  animated 
discussion  in  the  Episcopal  Church  over  the  advisability 
of  participating  in  the  Panama  Conference.  I  was  op- 
posed to  this  on  grounds  both  of  principle  and  of  policy 
and  expressed  my  views  in  a  Charge  to  the  Delaware 
Clergy.  One  whose  criticism  I  asked  was  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Laird  of  Wilmington.  From  him  I  had  a  very  kind 
letter  in  which,  as  I  knew  he  would,  he  candidly  opposed 
my  position.  In  this  letter  he  said: 

"  In  spite  of  its  boasted  Catholicity,  the  Roman  Church 
has  not  only  failed  to  do  its  duty  in  South  America,  but  has 
done,  and  is  still  doing  much  positive  harm.  We  must,  it 
seems  to  me,  take  this  into  account.  ...  So  long  as  the 
Roman  Church  is  as  it  is,  I  am  frankly  anti-Roman;  and 
I  believe  that  a  serious  and  lasting  injury  will  be  done 
to  the  true  meaning  of  Catholic  Churchmanship,  if  we  act 
on  the  principle  that  their  technical  adherence  to  the  order 
and  doctrine  of  the  primitive  Church  entitles  them  to  more 
recognition  than  should  be  accorded  those  upon  whose  lives 
the  world  may  look  and  know  without  doubt  that  they  have 
been  with  Christ.  '  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.'  " 
204 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  205 

If  to  one  cause  more  than  another,  in  what  has  been 
a  complicated  process,  I  owe  my  conversion  to  Roman 
Catholicism,  it  is  to  this  letter  of  Dr.  Laird's.  It  led 
me  to  undertake  a  task  which  would  not  have  been 
thought  of  without  some  such  stimulating  occasion. 
This  was  to  learn  all  I  could  of  the  work  and  influence 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States. 
In  the  Panama  discussions  had  been  many  assertions 
of  the  "  rottenness  "  of  the  Roman  system  in  South  and 
Central  American  countries.  I  believed  them  exag- 
gerated, but  had  no  direct  knowledge.  From  the  good 
I  knew  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  European  countries 
and  North  Africa,  the  impressions  of  the  last  still  vivid, 
I  was  confident  that  the  system  could  not  be  wholly 
worthless  elsewhere;  but  I  did  not  know  facts.  It  oc- 
curred to  me,  however,  that  the  practical  thing  was 
to  know  about  the  Roman  Church,  not  in  South  Amer- 
ica or  North  Africa,  but  in  North  America,  especially 
close  at  home.  I  determined  therefore  to  make  a  special 
study  of  this,  being  actuated  by  two  distinct  mo- 
tives. 

The  first  was  simply  to  be  ordinarily  intelligent.  I 
had  ventured  to  speak  and  write  of  conditions  in  the 
Christian  world,  and  at  the  time  had  a  textbook  dealing 
with  such  matters  ready  for  the  printers.  It  was 
distinctly  my  duty  to  know  what  I  was  talking  about ; 
and  I  was  humiliated  to  think  that  I  had  neglected  so 
obvious  a  task  for  many  years.  I  presumed  to  instruct 
on  matters  connected  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
deriving  most  of  my  notions  from  the  thirteenth  century 
and  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  I  wished  to  be  ac- 


206  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

curate  and  fair.     Hence  I  saw  the  duty  of  taking  a 
special  course  on  Roman  Catholicism  in  America. 

The  other  motive  was  personal  and  not  laudable. 
Dr.  Laird  gave  me  a  text  which  has  dominated  my 
thought  for  four  years.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them."  Although  I  believed  that  he  was  mistaken  in 
some  of  his  judgments,  and  that  I  should  not  agree  with 
his  general  estimates,  I  suspected  that,  on  the  whole, 
in  comparing  Episcopalianism  and  Romanism,  he  was 
probably  right.  I  had  oecome  very  critical  of  my  own 
Church  and  was  already  feeling  strongly  certain  lures 
of  Rome.  I  thought  it  altogether  likely  that  a  little 
actual  contact  with  Roman  Catholicism  close  at  hand 
would  give  me  a  healthy  appreciation  of  the  good  people 
and  good  works  with  whom  I  was  associated,  and 
quickly  rid  me  of  my  Romanizing  nonsense !  I  deliber- 
ately tried  to  find  out  about  things,  half-expecting,  and 
even  half-hoping,  to  be  disgusted!  I  remembered  the 
sermon  I  had  heard  when  a  boy  and  imagined  that 
Roman  priests  were  in  the  habit  of  telling  their  people 
they  were  "  asses  to  calumniate."  I  knew  of  TyrrelPs 
remark  about  the  man  who  left  the  house  with  smoky 
chimneys  for  one  where  the  chimneys  were  all  right, 
only  to  find  that  "  the  drains  were  out  of  order."  I 
had  a  horrible  dread  of  mediaeval  plumbing,  and  thought 
that  a  little  experience  might  give  me  sense  to  value 
rightly  the  modern  conveniences  of  Episcopalianism. 
I  had  not  the  slightest  wish  to  flee  to  others  that  I  knew 
not  of,  and  felt  certain  would  prove  a  good  deal  worse ! 
I  had  heard  reports  of  catechisms  teaching  that  no  faith 
need  be  kept  with  heretics  and  that  it  was  a  venial  sin 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  207 

to  steal  from  Protestants.  If  things  like  this  were  true, 
I  wished  to  know  it  so  as  to  be  rid  of  illusions ;  if  they 
weren't,  I  wished  to  be  in  a  position  to  deny  them  and 
secure  fair  play.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  " 
is  the  Divine  test.  I  took  it  as  a  motto  in  my  ecclesi- 
astical perplexities. 

The  first  consequence  was  to  open  my  eyes  to  the  real 
significance  of  many  things  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 
I  had  hitherto  stuck  to  the  theories  and,  so  long  as  I 
believed  them  right,  ignored  facts.  The  ideal  Episcopal 
Church  exhibited  in  action  the  principles  of  the  Quadri- 
lateral; and  it  did  not  concern  me  that  most  Episcopal 
churches  of  my  acquaintance  seemed  not  to  do  so. 
They  were  simply  exceptions  which  proved  the  rule.  I 
was  now  to  see  more  clearly  that  exceptions  practically 
without  exception  constitute  a  rule,  and  that  principles 
may  be  nullified  by  policies.  From  1915  on,  I  was  ap- 
plying the  test  of  "  fruits  "  to  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  looking  on  every  priest,  every  parish,  every 
professed  Churchman,  as  a  specimen,  and  trying  to 
analyze  the  significance  of  each  as  a  "  fruit  "  of  the 
Anglican  system.  The  result  was  the  conviction  that 
Protestant  fruits  implied  Protestant  stock  and  roots ; 
and  that  it  is  unreasonable  to  expect  to  gather  Catholic 
figs  from  Puritan  thistles.  This  effort  crystallized 
opinions  which  had  for  several  years  been  floating  in 
solution. 

The  second  consequence  was  to  discover  that  between 
the  Catholicism  of  North  Africa  and  that  of  North 
America  there  seemed  to  be  no  appreciable  difference, 
and  that  instead  of  being  weaned  from  Romanism,  I 


208          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

was  disposed  to  like  it  better  than  ever.  As  I  had  op- 
portunities— which  were  few — I  attended  Roman  serv- 
ices, at  the  Cathedrals  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Bal- 
timore, Cleveland,  and  Portland,  and  some  parish 
churches  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York.  I  felt  even 
more  at  home  than  in  Tunis !  The  chief  impression  was 
that  the  Mass  is  primarily  worship  of  Our  Lord,  affect- 
ing minds  and  manners  as  well  as  morals  of  successive 
congregations  of  thousands  as  they  go  from  the  beauty 
and  silence  of  the  great  Sacrifice  to  their  myriad  homes. 
It  was  unlike  anything  I  had  known  at  home  before, 
for  even  when  compared  with  attempts  for  the  same 
effect  inspired  by  identical  beliefs  and  motives,  it  is 
one  thing  to  have  the  Church  doing  these  things  always 
for  all  her  children,  and  another  to  have  a  good  priest 
struggling  for  them  against  the  inertia  of  his  congre- 
gation. 

I  was  prepared  to  find  the  Roman  Church  superior 
to  the  Episcopalian  in  reverent  administration  of  Sac- 
raments, but  less  effective  in  its  ministration  of  the 
Word:  I  expected  to  like  the  Mass,  but  to  disparage 
the  preaching.  The  expectation  was  not  realized.  In 
Roman  churches  I  have  heard  every  kind  of  poor  ser- 
mon I  ever  heard  elsewhere  except  two;  a  discourse  on 
some  subject  of  general  interest  in  which  the  Christian 
religion  is  vaguely  referred  to,  or  one  obviously  in- 
tended to  serve  as  exhibition  of  the  ability  and  personal 
fascination  of  a  self-conscious  preacher.  Nevertheless, 
I  have  never  heard  one  which,  whatever  may  have  been 
its  crudities  and  awkwardnesses,  was  not  an  effort  to 
expound  some  Christian  truth  in  a  practical  way,  with 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  209 

greatest  reverence  for  Holy  Scripture  and  constant 
recognition  of  the  authority  of  "  Our  Divine  Lord." 
The  kind  of  preaching  which  I  have  invariably  heard  in 
Roman  churches  is  that  which,  as  a  boy  at  St.  Paul's, 
I  came  to  believe  in  as  ideal ;  and,  as  a  contrast  to  that 
which  I  have  more  recently  been  accustomed  to,  it 
brought  home  to  me  how  uncommon  in  Episcopal 
churches  this  has  become.  In  my  own  preaching  I 
aimed  at  giving  a  simple  message  in  Our  Lord's  Name; 
yet  I  recognized  that  in  this  regard  it  would  compare 
unfavorably  with  that  of  any  young  Catholic  priest.  I 
had  come  to  care  very  little  for  sermons;  but  I  look 
forward  to  them  in  Catholic  churches,  knowing  that 
there  will  be  a  simple  exposition  of  Scripture,  probably 
of  the  Gospel  for  the  day,  exegetically  sound  because 
following  the  great  theologians,  aiming  at  stirring  the 
conscience,  probably  not  striking  in  delivery,  but  ob- 
viously useful,  and  in  no  way  interrupting  the  spirit  of 
worship.  I  have  heard  very  eloquent  sermons  in  Catho- 
lic churches.  My  mother  went  with  me  to  a  Lenten 
service,  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  New  York,  and  said 
she  had  never  seen  me  more  utterly  absorbed  by  a  ser- 
mon than  the  one  we  heard  from  Father  William  B. 
Martin.  The  most  eloquent  long  address  I  ever  listened 
to  was  delivered  by  Cardinal  O'Connell  at  a  mass-meet- 
ing in  Madison  Square  Garden,  and  the  best  address  on 
a  religious  subject  by  a  layman,  by  Mr.  Bourke  Coch- 
ran  at  a  dinner  in  Wilmington.  On  the  whole,  so  nearly 
as  I  can  judge,  the  preaching  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood  in  the  United  States  can  rank  with  the  best. 
I  was  sure  that  in  Roman  churches  I  should  miss 


210  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

hymns,  for  which  I  have  a  liking  that  is  Methodist  in 
intensity;  and  I  know  well  how  the  intelligent  use  of 
them  can  assist  instruction  as  well  as  devotion.  In  this 
I  was  sure  Protestants  have  an  advantage ;  and  I  think 
so  still.  But  I  have  discovered  that  Catholics  make 
much  use  of  hymns,  though  there  is  apparently  less  con- 
gregational singing  in  this  country  than  in  some  places 
abroad;  and  for  devoutness  and  intelligence  in  singing 
I  have  never  heard  anything  better  than  the  hymns  used 
in  some  places  at  the  9.30  Masses.  It  is  certain  that 
Protestants  have  in  certain  ways  advantages  over 
Catholics  in  details  of  method;  but  these  are  not  so 
great  or  so  numerous  as  is  often  imagined.  Attendance 
of  Roman  services  did  not  rid  me  of  the  North  African 
glamour.  It  was  not  a  case  of  "  came  to  scoff  and  re- 
mained to  pray,"  but  of  expecting  to  scorn  and  being 
constrained  to  praise. 

Yet  assuming  that  Roman  clergy  could  do  very  well 
in  church,  I  doubted  whether  in  general  education  they 
were  the  equals  of  Protestant  ministers,  and  whether 
their  general  influence  was  making  for  highest  educa- 
tion. Plainly  they  did  not  make  use  of  the  advantages 
of  American  colleges  and  universities  to  a  great  extent; 
and  their  people  were  for  the  most  part  from  the  less 
educated  classes.  I  was  convinced  that  Anglicanism 
was  par  excellence  the  devotee  of  "  sound  learning,"  and 
although  recognizing  that  much  that  passes  for  this  is 
nothing  but  learned  sound,  I  held  tenaciously  to  the 
conviction  that  Anglicanism  is  synonym  for  learning 
and  devotion  to  Truth.  Individual  Anglicans  may  fail; 
but  their  system  is  professedly  devoted  to  sound  learn- 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  211 

ing,  and  the  scholars  of  the  English  Church  represent  a 
great  hope  for  Christendom.  Whatever  excellencies 
others  may  have,  it  is  an  Anglican  distinction  that  it 
fosters  devout  and  fearless  Christian  scholarship.  I 
have  not  lost  one  whit  of  my  veneration  for  the  scholars 
of  the  English  Church,  or  for  those  in  the  American 
Episcopal  Church  who,  amid  many  difficulties,  do  their 
best  to  live  up  to  the  traditions  of  the  long  line  of 
scholarly  Anglican  divines.  But  with  this  went  the  as- 
sumption that  they  monopolize  "  sound  learning,"  and 
that  there  could  be  little  or  no  real  scholarship  among 
Roman  Catholics,  since  Curial  authority  stifled  criti- 
cism, and  fearless  statements  of  fact  were  likely  to  find 
themselves  on  the  Index.  If  I  had  much  conceit  about 
this,  it  was  not  for  myself  whose  ignorance  I  too  well 
knew,  but  for  the  clergy  of  Anglican  succession  as  a 
class,  and  for  an  indisputable  Anglican  ideal.  Such 
Roman  Catholic  writers  as  I  knew  could  undoubtedly 
hold  their  own  with  scholars;  but  as  usual  I  assumed 
them  to  be  exceptions. 

This  conceit  received  a  severe  shock  when  I  first 
examined  the  Catholic  Encyclopaedia,  undertaken  at  the 
instance  of  Cardinal  Farley,  and  a  product  of  Roman 
Catholic  scholarship  in  America.  A  distinctly  sobering 
effect  is  in  store  for  any  clergyman  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  who  wishes  to  examine  this  and  then  imagine 
what  he  and  his  colleagues  would  have  made  of  a  simi- 
lar attempt !  The  impression  given  by  this  will  be 
deepened  if  he  makes  a  special  study  of  the  results  of 
Benedictine  scholarship  along  their  special  lines.  The 
one  subject  on  which  I  can  trust  my  own  judgment  at 


212  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

all  is  Church  History,  on  which  I  have  been  doing  special 
work  for  almost  thirty  years.  On  this  subject  I  have 
read  almost  everything  by  Anglican  writers,  many  other 
books  in  English,  some  German  and  some  French,  and 
have  dabbled  in  originals.  Lately  I  have  been  reading 
Roman  Catholic  writers  covering  ground  with  which  I 
considered  myself  fairly  familiar.  They  have  shed 
floods  of  light :  some  of  them  are  the  best  I  know :  some 
do  bits  of  work  I  longed  for  in  seminary  days  and  could 
not  find:  they  have  given  a  sense  of  freedom  which  I 
never  had  in  reading  only  Anglican  authorities :  and  by 
revealing  unsuspected  abysses  of  ignorance  they  have 
made  me  wish  to  do  all  my  History  work  over  again. 
If  this  were  possible,  my  lectures  would  have  a  fulness, 
accuracy,  and  freedom  they  never  before  possessed.  I 
should  not  maintain  that  Roman  Catholics  as  a  class 
are  intellectually  superior  to  Protestants,  but  I  do  as- 
sert that  Protestant  superiority  is  not  so  great  as  is 
often  assumed,  and  that  there  is  much  superiority  on 
the  other  side. 

The  tests  of  "  fruits,"  however,  is  to  be  applied  not 
so  much  to  things  ecclesiastical  and  intellectual  as  to 
things  moral.  What  sort  of  moral  teaching  do  Ameri- 
can Catholics  receive;  and  what  are  its  consequences  in 
national  life?  Many  suspect  that  flagrant  offences 
against  truth  and  honesty  are  condoned  by  Catholic 
casuistry.  I  wished  to  inform  myself  as  well  as  I  could 
as  to  this  fact,  and  to  do  so  made  a  collection  of  devo- 
tional books,  catechisms,  pamphlets,  and  tracts,  repre- 
senting the  instruction  on  many  points  which  Catholics 
receive.  In  some  of  those  dealing  with  matters  of  con- 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  213 

troversy  I  found  slap-dash  statements  in  the  interests  of 
reckless  partisanship  which  would  not  stand  scientific 
tests,  yet  could  find  no  parallel  for  these  in  the  work  of 
specialists  of  recognized  authority.*  I  found  a  great 
deal  of  extravagant  devotional  language  which  did  not 
commend  itself  to  my  taste;  but  in  such  matters  there 
can  be  no  fixed  standard,  and  due  provision  is  made  for 
all  sorts.  These  are  details.  The  main  fact  was  that 
I  discovered  a  body  of  varied  practical  teaching  for 
all  classes  of  people,  inculcating  the  highest  standards 
of  strict  morality  and  affording  practical  training  in 
the  science  of  holiness,  altogether  admirable,  and  having 
no  parallel  in  the  similar  literature  of  my  own  religious 
body  or  of  any  Protestant  denomination  of  which  I  had 
knowledge.  How  I  wished  all  Delaware  boys  and  girls 
could  have  the  benefit  of  such  instruction  in  morals  as 

*  This  sort  of  thing  is  to  be  found  in  similar  literature  of 
all  religious  propaganda.  I  never  discovered  in  Roman 
Catholic  tracts  any  statements  more  misleading  than  I  have 
seen  in  Episcopalian  literature  of  the  same  character. 
Catholic  criticism  of  Protestants  seems  distinctly  less  unfair 
and  less  scurrilous  than  Protestant  criticisms  of  Catholics,  so 
nearly  as  I  can  judge  from  fairly  extensive  reading.  Luther 
was  the  great  past-master  of  foul-mouthed  abuse  and  of 
ex  parte  argument;  and  his  pre-eminence  has  passed  to  some 
of  his  followers.  There  is  deplorable  sin  of  this  sort  on  both 
sides;  but  Protestant  pots  have  no  reason  to  be  severe  with 
Catholic  kettles.  I  am  especially  squeamish  in  regard  to 
sweeping  statements  in  historical  matters;  and  it  is  as  true 
of  Catholics  as  of  Protestants  that  the  inaccurate  generaliza- 
tions of  tracts  have  no  analogies  in  the  writings  of  real  his- 
torians. I  quarrel  with  rash  assertions  in  certain  pamphlets, 
but  find  nothing  similar  in  the  discussion  of  the  matters  in- 
volved in  such  writers  as  Gasquet  and  Duchesne. 


214.          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

I  found  provided  for  young  Catholics !  Not  to  recog- 
nize excellence  of  this  sort  is  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost.  I  read  many  newspapers  and  periodicals,  was 
delighted  with  the  tone  and  influence  of  parish  papers, 
and  the  obvious  excellence  of  the  Catholic  press.* 

The  salient  feature  of  much  of  this  teaching,  as  it  is 
of  Catholic  pulpits,  is  constant  insistence  on  the  sanc- 
tity of  marriage  and  of  the  home  as  the  basis  of  per- 
sonal and  social  morality.  Those  who  know  that  the 
Christian  home  is  the  very  sanctuary  and  citadel  of 
all  that  is  sound  in  national  life,  cannot  too  highly  ap- 
preciate the  unflinching  stand  for  this  taken  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Christian  homes  of  Protes- 
tants are  often  of  the  best :  but  I  doubt  whether  any  re- 
ligious body  teaches  the  sanctity  of  the  home  with  the 

*  Shortly  after  I  had  begun  these  investigations,  I  began  to 
receive  a  great  deal  of  Catholic  literature  from  an  anonymous 
source,  including  many  things  much  to  my  purpose,  which  I 
should  not  otherwise  have  come  across.  Only  recently  have 
I  discovered  the  sender,  Mr.  John  V.  Lawton,  of  Philadelphia. 
His  explanation  was  as  follows: 

"  About  eight  years  ago,  I  called  upon  you  at  the  Parish 
House  in  Wilmington  and  had  a  talk  in  reference  to  some 
sort  of  demonstration;  but  it  was  a  talk  of  only  two  or  three 
minutes.  For  some  reason  I  thought  of  you  many  times 
after  that;  and  about  four  years  ago,  while  in  Wilmington, 
I  met  a  grocer  with  whom  I  did  business,  who  talked  about 
you.  Shortly  after  I  happened  to  pass  you  on  the  street  in 
Wilmington.  I  looked  after  you  and  the  thought  entered  my 
mind,  '  How  nice  it  would  be  if  some  day  Bishop  Kinsman  did 
as  Cardinal  Newman  did.'  For  some  reason  or  other,  which 
I  am  really  not  able  to  explain,  the  thought  of  you  lingered 
in  my  mind,  and  something  seemed  to  say,  'Interest  yourself 
in  Bishop  Kinsman.'  What  I  have  tried  to  do  since,  you 
already  know  all  about." 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  215 

force  and  persistence  of  Roman  Catholics :  at  any  rate 
Episcopalians  do  not.  I  am  not  denying  the  existence 
of  their  good  homes,  merely  affirming  what  I  know  of 
the  actual,  effective  teaching  of  the  Church.  With  this 
in  Catholic  teaching  goes  insistence  on  respect  for 
elders  and  superiors,  immensely  helped  by  training  for 
behavior  in  church,  and  systematic  inculcation  of  obedi- 
ence. There  is  nothing  in  this  better  than  in  Protestant 
instructions,  but  apparently  much  more  systematic  ap- 
plication of  it  in  educational  systems.  Among  Cath- 
olics as  among  non-Catholics  are  many  failures  to  live 
up  to  standards ;  but  what  I  was  forced  to  see  was  that 
there  is  no  doubt  what  the  Catholic  standards  are,  and 
they  are  nailed  to  the  mast.  Against  all  the  evils  that 
threaten  America  by  insidious  undermining  of  the  foun- 
dations of  the  home,  there  is  no  stronger  or  more  ef- 
fective bulwark  than  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  I 
had  some  appreciation  of  this,  though  less  than  I  had 
later,  when  I  stated  in  a  pamphlet  in  1915: 

"  How  thankful  we  should  be  for  the  thousands  of  saintly 
lives  which  are,  and  always  have  been,  nurtured  within  the 
great  Communion  of  the  Latin  races.  None  but  a  blind  and 
bigoted  partisan  can  shut  his  eyes  to  such  inspiring  facts ; 
and  none  but  a  fallen  Christian  can  fail  ungrudgingly  to 
acknowledge  them.  All  honor  to  the  Roman  Church  for  all 
the  good  it  does  as  a  mighty  bulwark  for  the  central  princi- 
ples of  faith,  and,  in  these  days  of  defiance  of  all  authority, 
for  its  resolute  countenance  on  the  whole  of  the  sanctity  of 
marriage  and  family  life.  Doubtless  in  parts  of  the  Roman 
Communion,  as  in  other  Communions,  there  are  sad  ex- 
amples of  failure  and  degradation.  Facts  of  this  sort  we 


216          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

cannot  ignore;  neither  ought  we  to  ignore  greater  facts  on 
the  other  side.  We  wish  to  see,  confess,  and  thank  God  for, 
the  virtues  of  all  in  the  Christian  world,  most  of  all  in  that 
most  influential  of  Communions  on  whose  loyalty  and  sanc- 
tity so  much  for  all  the  world  depends." 


Akin  to  this  is  dealing  from  the  standpoint  of  religion 
with  economic  and  social  questions.  My  investigations 
along  this  line,  to  which  I  must  refer  in  another  connec- 
tion, have  resulted  in  two  convictions:  (1)  that  Roman 
Catholics  more  than  others  in  dealing  with  these  never 
lose  the  distinctly  Christian  standpoint;  and  (2)  that 
they  have  unusually  full  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
actual  facts  in  the  industrial  and  social  world  to  which 
Christianity  must  be  applied. 

Of  all  tests  by  "  fruits  "  the  greatest  has  been  the 
War.  A  dozen  friends  have  spoken  to  me  of  this :  "  The 
War  has  revealed  the  hollowness  of  Romanism.  You 
see  how  moral  claims  seem  to  have  been  subordinated  to 
supposed  political  expediency."  Of  the  function  of  the 
Church  in  international  politics  I  have  been  learning 
what  I  can ;  but  as  my  opinions  are  unformed,  I  cannot 
speak  of  them  without  obviously  "  thinking  in  public." 
But  in  various  ways  I  have  tried  to  see  how  Roman 
Catholicism  has  stood  the  test  of  the  War ;  and  two 
impressions  have  been  clearer  than  others:  (1)  that  its 
stability  has  been  thrown  into  prominence  by  contrast 
with  ecclesiastical  systems  dependent  on  the  State;  and 
(2)  that  Catholics  made  as  good  records  as  the  best  in 
the  American  Army. 

The  first  of  these  has  come  chiefly  from  thinking  of 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  217 

the  Eastern  Churches.  The  fetters  imposed  on  their 
activity  by  political  dependence  have  been  obvious. 
The  fate  of  the  Russian  Church  is  wholly  uncertain.  In 
spite  of  the  strong  basis  of  faith  in  the  Russian  people, 
it  would  seem  as  if  the  Church  were  in  danger  of  over- 
throw along  with  the  government  which  has  hitherto 
been  its  support.  Contrasted  with  the  fate  of  all  the 
Churches  in  the  East,  is  the  steady  persistence  of  the 
life  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  everywhere,  even  in 
the  countries  where  it  was  most  affected  by  the  violence 
of  War.  It  has  emerged  frDm  the  War  as  it  was  when 
it  entered  the  cloud  of  conflict.  The  same  contrast  has 
been  suggested  by  hints  of  change  coming  to  the  Church 
of  England.  Could  it  stand  if  it  ceased  to  be  the  Es- 
tablishment? It  is  made  not  by  position,  but  by  pos- 
session, possession  of  Catholic  churches  and  of  State 
endowments.  Could  it  survive  disendowment  and  dis- 
possession? The  War  has  emphasized  the  necessity  of 
political  independence  of  the  Church,  even  when  men  as 
Christians  have  had  to  take  special  part  in  national 
struggles. 

Frankly  I  did  not  expect  that  Roman  Catholics  in 
America  would  make  as  good  a  showing  as  others  in 
doing  America's  part  in  the  War.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  nothing  could  be  better  than  what  I  saw  in  mem- 
bers of  my  own  Church  and  others  with  whom  they  were 
especially  associated,  of  large-minded  view  of  the  moral 
issues  of  the  War,  of  determination  to  show  the  spirit 
of  sacrifice,  and  of  readiness  to  respond  to  every  appeal 
made  in  behalf  of  Christian  civilization  threatened  by 
the  German  aggression,  I  thought,  and  think  still,  that 


218          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

no  better  showing  was  made  by  any  similar  class  of 
American  citizens.  I  did  not  thinl:  that  Roman  Catho- 
lics were  likely  to  make  as  good  a  record,  and  scruti- 
nized them  closely.  In  the  end  I  could  not  see  that  they 
differed  from  others  in  accepting  national  obligations, 
though  they  had  less  money  to  give  for  War  funds, 
nor  in  the  spirit  of  religious  consecration  for  the  na- 
tional tasks.  Their  leaders  kept  pace  with  the  best, 
even  if  they  did  not  forge  ahead.  But  in  response  to 
the  great  challenge  for  all  that  was  best  in  national 
life,  they  did  not  fail. 

The  most  obvious  test  seemed  to  be  afforded  by  the 
life  of  the  Army  with  its  thirty-five  per  cent,  of  Catho- 
lics, although  these  represented  less  than  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  I  sought  reasons  for  this  fact 
and  was  told,  that  the  number  of  voluntary  enlistments 
among  Catholics  was  proportionately  high ;  and,  by  a 
doctor  who  acted  as  examiner  on  a  draft-board,  that 
one  reason  so  many  Catholics  passed  the  physical  tests 
was  that  they  were  comparatively  free  from  diseases  due 
to  vicious  habits.  Their  record  in  the  fighting  is  well 
known.  I  had  few  opportunities  to  see  anything  of  sol- 
diers, although  in  travelling  about  I  was  always  on  the 
lookout  for  them  as  travelling  companions,  and  a  num- 
ber of  times  encountered  young  Catholics.  Occasion- 
ally they  spoke  of  religious  duties  in  a  matter-of-fact 
way,  always  assuming  that  wherever  they  went,  the 
Church  must  be  with  them.  A  soldier  from  Camp 
Devens  told  me  how  he  and  six  others  got  permission  to 
get  up  at  five  o'clock  to  go  to  Mass  in  a  church  three 
miles  off,  getting  back  for  their  first  duties  in  camp 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  210 

at  seven.  The  impression  he  gave  was  of  feeling  the 
natural  and  normal  necessity  of  the  Church  without  the 
least  self-consciousness  in  discharging  his  duties.  I  be- 
lieve that  this  was  typical.  It  is  unlikely  that  Catho- 
lic soldiers  and  sailors  made  more  use  of  their  religious 
life  than  others ;  but  it  seems  to  come  from  their  train- 
ing, that  this  is  viewed  as  natural  and  necessary,  is 
accepted  as  matter  of  course  as  the  one  sustaining  thing 
in  danger,  and,  with  its  constant  reference  to  the  unseen 
world,  lessens  the  fear  of  death.  "  Protestantism  is 
pretty  good  to  live  by ;  but  Catholicism  seems  better  to 
die  by."  Comments  of  this  kind  have  been  made  by  ob- 
servers at  the  front.  The  Protestant  imagination  that 
"  the  Catholic  Church  has  no  hold  on  its  men  "  is  sheer 
superstition.  To  see  this,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to 
attend  several  Masses  at  any  town  church :  and  to  know 
how  the  young  fellows  feel  about  it,  inspect  a  few 
Knights  of  Columbus.  They  will  not  indulge  in  edify- 
ing conversation ;  but  find  out  what  they  do  about 
church. 

I  have  been  much  impressed  by  the  record  in  War- 
work  of  the  K.  of  C.  I  expected  that  they  would  fall 
behind  the  better  equipped  and  much  more  experienced 
Y.M.C.A.  But  this  seems  not  to  have  been  the  case. 
To  begin  with,  which  was  to  be  expected,  they  were  de- 
termined to  take  the  Church  everywhere,  that  soldiers 
in  camp  and  trenches  need  not  miss  Sunday  Mass. 
First  things  were  put  first ;  and  the  religious  side  of 
their  work  was  of  primary  importance.  But  their 
record  was  good  in  all  other  ways ;  and  it  seems  to  be 
generally  acknowledged  that  they  have  taken  the  lead 


220  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

in  looking  after  the  present  needs  of  disbanded  soldiers. 
Tested  by  works  as  well  as  by  faith,  they  show  up  well. 
And  what  is  true  of  them  has  been  true  of  Catholic 
citizens  generally. 

From  all  this  it  is  evident  how  strongly  I  was  being 
attracted  to  the  Roman  Church.  There  was  a  gradual 
disintegration  of  difficulties  of  which  I  shall  speak  sepa- 
rately. It  was  becoming  clear  that  prejudices  were 
vanishing  on  closer  acquaintance.  Nevertheless  I  still 
believed  the  Episcopal  to  be  part  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  myself  to  be  priest  and  Bishop,  and  my  one 
responsibility  for  work  in  Delaware.  I  fought  doubts 
by  exposing  myself  to  every  influence  that  would  steady 
me,  cultivated  people  representing  the  best  aspects  of 
our  Church  work,  and  avoided  those  who  depressed  me. 
Every  consideration  of  association  and  interest  tied  me 
to  my  post,  to  say  nothing  of  the  wish  on  principle  to 
stick  to  my  assigned  duty.  I  resolved  that,  if  the 
doubts  ever  appeared  insoluble,  I  should  promptly  give 
up ;  but  I  tried  to  prevent,  or  at  least  postpone,  their 
doing  so,  until  after  the  Lambeth  Conference.  So 
although  I  was  gladly  recognizing  good  things  in 
Roman  Catholicism  and  wished  to  see  it  prosper,  al- 
though I  was  willing  to  accept  its  claims  if  I  could,  I 
was  fighting  hard  to  keep  my  faith  in  Anglican 
Catholicity.  In  the  Episcopal  Church  I  had  been  born 
and  reared ;  it  had  done  everything  for  me ;  I  should  not 
give  it  up  if  I  could  help. 

Moreover,  at  the  first  suggestion  of  possible  change 
of  Communion,  I  had  not  thought  of  "  Rome  "  as  the 
alternative.  I  had  considered  the  possible  function  of 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  221 

Eastern  Orthodoxy  in  America  only  to  end  with  the 
conclusion  that  Westerns  must  be  trained  by  some  form 
of  Western  Catholicity.  I  had  thought  very  much  more 
of  the  Old  Catholics,  with  whose  position  that  of  High 
Church  Anglicans  was  virtually  identical;  and  in  look- 
ing toward  a  general  readjustment  of  ecclesiastical  re- 
lations in  future,  it  had  seemed  to  me  possible  that 
Protestant  Episcopalians  might  separate  to  coalesce 
with  their  natural  affinities,  the  left  wing  with  Re- 
formed Episcopalians  or  Methodists,  the  right  with  Old 
Catholics.  I  knew  that  Old  Catholics  would  make  modi- 
fications in  their  discipline  making  it  easy  for  Anglicans 
to  amalgamate.  In  1898,  I  had  some  correspondence 
with  Bishop  Antony  Koslowski  of  the  Polish  Old  Catho- 
lic Church  in  regard  to  a  congregation  of  Portuguese 
in  New  Bedford,  which  he  eventually  took  under  his 
jurisdiction.  He  was  ready  to  allow,  though  not  will- 
ingly, the  use  of  the  vulgar  tongue  instead  of  Latin, 
communion  of  the  laity  in  both  kinds,  and  marriage  of 
the  clergy.  Other  Old  Catholic  Bishops  have  been  will- 
ing, I  believe,  to  make  similar  concessions.  Yet  the 
result  of  such  observations  as  I  could  make  left  me  with 
the  impression  that  Old  Catholicism  had  no  great  part 
to  play  in  America.  Ultimately  I  came  to  see  that 
for  myself  Romanism  was  the  only  alternative.  I  re- 
member saying  to  Bishop  Rhinelander  in  1917,  "  If 
ever  I  give  up,  it  will  be  altogether;  and  the  alterna- 
tive is  Rome." 

Anglican  Bishops  must  in  some  way  relate  their  posi- 
tion to  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy.  In 
England,  it  seems  simple.  The  Anglican  Bishops  con- 


222  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

stitute  the  rightful  hierarchy  of  the  Church  of  the 
Realm ;  those  of  the  "  Italian  Mission  "  are  intruders. 
In  America,  Low  Church  Bishops  may  think  of  them- 
selves as  belonging  to  a  "  Gospel  ministry,"  one  of 
whose  functions  is  to  combat  Romanism.  Although 
they  would  concede  that  Roman  Bishops  had  every 
right  to  propagate  their  faith  in  a  free  country,  they 
would  view  them  as  foes  of  pure  Christianity.  Not  so 
with  High  Church  Bishops.  They  believe  the  Roman 
Bishops,  as  they  believe  themselves,  to  represent  the 
episcopate  of  the  Catholic  Church,  although  belonging 
to  a  different  line  of  descent;  few,  if  any,  would  hold 
others  intruders  on  the  ground  that  the  first  Bishop 
in  America  was  an  Anglican.  I  imagine  that  most  feel 
as  I  did,  that  the  two  lines  of  Catholic  Bishops  have 
obvious  mission  to  different  classes  of  people  in  a  land 
of  mixed  racial  antecedents.  High  Church  Bishops 
think  of  their  work  as  moving  along  lines  parallel  to 
that  of  the  Romans,  progressing  by  different  methods, 
and  emphasizing  different  aspects  of  truth,  yet  as  es- 
sentially part  of  one  Divinely  inspired  movement  to  win 
America  to  Catholicism.  They  look  forward  to  ulti- 
mate unity,  believing  in  their  Church  as  "  of  the  Recon- 
ciliation," one  of  whose  functions  is  to  reveal  Catholi- 
cism stripped  of  "  accretions."  They  would  think  of 
themselves,  not  as  hostile  to  the  Roman  hierarchy, 
merely  as  commissioned  to  minister  to  different  sets  of 
people  in  America. 

Recognition  of  Roman  excellences,  or  even  feeling  of 
its  attractions  for  myself,  did  not  disturb  me  so  long 
as  I  believed  the  Episcopal  Church  to  have  the  best  sort 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  223 

of  Catholicism  for  such  people  as  I  knew  in  Delaware. 
Yet  by  1917,  I  was  wondering  whether,  of  the  two 
kinds  of  Catholicism,  the  Roman  might  not  provide  for 
one  set  of  people  as  well  as  another,  was  feeling 
strongly  the  evil  of  division  in  the  Catholic  forces,  and 
the  anomaly  of  two  Bishops  in  the  same  place.  If  in 
Delaware  there  was  an  intruder,  I  began  to  be  sus- 
picious that  it  was  not  the  Roman  Bishop  of  Wilming- 
ton !  Moreover,  in  Anglican  theory,  its  episcopate, 
freed  from  papal  oppression,  is  more  freely  and  fully 
episcopal.  I  knew  this  to  be  nonsense.  Without  know- 
ing much  of  the  work  of  Bishop  Monaghan  of  Wilming- 
ton, I  knew  that  in  his  work  he  was  more  of  a  Bishop 
than  I  was.  This  was  for  no  local  or  personal  reason. 
If  I  looked  at  my  near  neighbours,  there  was  nothing 
more  intensely  episcopal  in  Bishop  Rhinelander  than 
in  Archbishop  Prendergast,  or  in  Bishop  Murray  than 
in  Cardinal  Gibbons.  This  was  due,  not  to  differences 
in  character  or  ability  of  individual  men,  but  to  dif- 
ferences in  conditions  under  which  work  had  to  be  done 
in  their  respective  Communions.  The  Papal  Episco- 
pate in  action  was  more  episcopal  than  the  Protestant 
Episcopate.  I  saw  this  before  the  time  came  when  I 
took  "  protestant  "  for  more  than  silent  partner  in  an 
ill-assorted  firm. 

In  my  own  case,  there  was  an  unusual  chance  for  a 
Bishop  to  count  for  much  in  his  work,  owing  to  the 
smallness  of  the  diocese,  more  like  a  big  straggling 
parish.  I  knew  most  of  our  people,  in  their  homes  as 
well  as  in  church ;  and  I  could  do  much  to  bring  people 
together.  But  this  was  not  as  a  Bishop,  but  as  Per- 


224  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

sonal-Friend-at-Large.  My  characteristic  function  was 
not  as  celebrant  of  the  Bishop's  Mass,  of  which  Dela- 
ware Episcopalians  had  no  conception,  in  a  Cathedral, 
which  as  more  than  a  name  would  have  been  an  impossi- 
bility, but  as  host  at  an  evening  reception  at  Bishop- 
stead!  My  position  of  vantage  was  social,  not  ecclesi- 
astical. 

In  thinking  much  of  the  ultimate  one  Catholicism  for 
Delaware  and  for  America,  I  had  to  think  of  the  rela- 
tion to  this  of  the  perpetuating  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church.  At  the  same  time,  I  was  restudying  the 
history  of  the  English  Reformation  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  responsibility  for  schism,  and  thinking  of 
the  essential  character  of  schism.  My  investigation 
into  the  working  facts  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  America 
had  no  bearing  on  this  except  to  show  that  Romanism 
was  more  useful  than  I  had  supposed.  The  conceit  of 
an  Episcopalian  dies  hard,  and  belief  in  a  special  Di- 
vine mission  of  High  Anglicanism  harder  still. 

It  made  me  pause  in  approaching  certain  apparently 
inevitable  conclusions  to  reflect  on  the  isolation  of  my 
position  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  on  the  presump- 
tion of  disagreeing  with  my  elders  and  betters.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  Catholic  Anglicanism  was  losing 
ground ;  older  Bishops  whom  I  specially  revered,  like 
those  of  Pittsburgh,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire, 
out  of  longer  experience,  thought  just  the  contrary. 
Of  all  things  it  seemed  the  height  of  presumption  for 
me  to  venture  to  differ  from  the  Bishops  of  Vermont  and 
Oxford.  Yet  in  my  own  mind  I  was  defying  them  both 
on  the  subject  of  Reservation.  I  agreed  that  it  was 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  225 

not  permissible  for  Anglicans  without  some  authorita- 
tive sanction ;  but  I  did  not  agree  that  it  was  in  itself 
a  misuse  of  the  Eucharist,  or  that  it  led  to  abuses:  I 
believed  that  it  ought  to  be  sanctioned  and  encouraged 
as  a  legitimate  stimulus  to  devotion.  To  Bishop  Hall 
I  wrote  all  this.  About  the  same  time  I  read  Gore's 
Manual,  and  thought  of  it,  "  As  theory,  it  seems  as 
plausible  and  appeals  to  me  as  much  as  ever;  but  it 
represents  nothing  actual  but  the  special  brand  of  belief 
of  a  few  fastidious  scholars.  In  Delaware  nobody  holds 
it.  I  am  nearest  approach  to  it ;  and  my  confidence  is 
oozing!"  And  then  I  meditated  on  Elijah  under  the 
juniper  tree! 

Prior  to  1917  I  had  no  acquaintance  with  Catholic 
clergy  beyond  the  merest  touch-and-go  contact,  with 
the  exception  that  ever  since  going  to  Delaware,  I  had 
known  the  Reverend  William  Temple,  D.D.,  of  Wil- 
mington, who  had  once  sent  me  a  kind  note,  and  on 
several  occasions  was  very  helpful  in  answering  inquiries 
about  books.  Yet  with  only  one  priest  had  I  any  close 
contact,  and  this  only  during  the  last  months  of  my 
living  in  Delaware. 

In  1917,  however,  I  made  some  good  Catholic  friends. 
A  lady  in  south  Delaware,  who  as  a  girl  had  attended 
the  Visitation  Academy  in  Wilmington,  at  a  time  of 
great  trouble  expressed  a  wish  that  she  might  get  in 
touch  with  Sister  Marie  Gabrielle  of  the  Visitation,  who 
had  been  her  best  friend  when  she  was  a  girl.  Without 
telling  her,  I  found  out  from  Bishop  Monaghan  that 
the  Sister  was  still  living,  and  wrote  to  her,  telling  her 
about  her  old  pupil  and  asking  that  she  write  her.  This 


226          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

led  to  a  correspondence  and  friendship  between  me  and 
Sister  Marie  Gabrielle,  to  my  calling  at  the  Convent 
on  three  occasions,  on  one  of  which  I  met  the  entire 
Community,  and  eventually  to  my  speaking  very 
frankly  to  Sister  Marie  Gabrielle  of  my  own  views  on 
matters  ecclesiastical.  It  interested  me  immensely  to 
know  something  of  the  lives  of  these  "  doves  "  of  St. 
Francis  de  Sales,  to  think  of  them  as  a  reservoir  of 
spiritual  force  in  the  centre  of  Wilmington ;  and  I  felt 
the  charm  of  their  conversation  which  showed  that  deli- 
cate gayety  which  is  only  possible  in  consecrated  lives. 
I  asked  Sister  Marie  Gabrielle  many  questions  about 
the  Order  and  the  Convent ;  and  the  messages  from  the 
Sisters  gave  a  touch  and  tone  to  two  years  unlike  any- 
thing else  I  had  known  in  Delaware.  Of  course,  they 
prayed  for  my  conversion ;  but  they  did  not  badger  me, 
and  were  content  to  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  God.  I 
cannot  measure  exactly  the  influence  of  this  contact 
with  the  Visitation  Sisters  except  in  one  definite  detail. 
They  gave  me  the  Life  of  Bishop  Alfred  A.  Curtis  of 
Wilmington,  who  lies  buried  within  their  enclosure.  The 
book  influenced  me  in  giving  a  picture  of  the  work  of 
a  Bishop  expressed  in  terms  of  the  life  of  the  peninsula 
I  knew  so  well,  an  experience  in  Delaware  which  I  could 
compare  with  Bishop  Coleman's  and  my  own.  It  was 
a  humiliating  revelation.  I  felt  like  an  Indian  in  the 
presence  of  a  white  man ;  and  this,  not  only  as  recog- 
nizing my  personal  inferiority  to  a  man  of  saintly  char- 
acter, but  in  seeing  a  picture  of  episcopal  life  sugges- 
tive of  the  spirit  of  St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Cyprian,  which 
had  never  been  possible  for  any  of  the  three  Bishops  of 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  227 

Delaware  owing  to  the  "  locally  adapted  "  character  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  This  deepened  impressions  al- 
ready forming  in  other  ways.  Of  all  my  friends  in 
Delaware,  there  are  none  for  whom  I  have  greater  af- 
fection and  respect  than  the  Sisters  of  the  Visitation. 

This  contact  with  the  Sisters  led  to  my  receiving  a 
call  from  their  chaplain,  the  Reverend  Charles  Augus- 
tine Dougherty  of  the  Oblate  Fathers.  I  saw  Father 
Dougherty  half  a  dozen  times,  went  to  walk  with  him, 
and  asked  many  questions  about  his  training  and  work. 
We  never  discussed  any  controversial  subject;  but  I 
was  deeply  influenced  by  what  I  could  learn  of  him  of 
the  work  of  Catholic  priests,  fitting  in  as  it  did  with 
what  I  was  getting  from  books.  I  was  constantly  com- 
paring it  with  what  corresponded  to  it  in  the  lives  of 
my  own  clergy,  feeling  chiefly  the  comparative  undisci- 
pline,  not  only  of  my  own  personal  life,  but  of  the  Epis- 
copalian clergy  as  a  body.  As  priests,  we  seemed  ama- 
teurs, while  Roman  Catholics  were  professionals.  I 
thought  of  it  the  more  in  talking  with  Father  Dough- 
erty as  he  was  young  enough  to  be  my  son.  During  the 
summer  of  1918,  I  read  a  number  of  books  on  Moral 
Theology,  to  find  out  something  of  the  nature  and 
standards  of  discipline  in  the  confessional.  These  also 
deepened  the  sense  of  lamentable  lack  of  discipline  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  of  regret  for  its  obscuration  of 
the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  and  of  the  loss  of  practical 
usefulness  in  the  moral  training  of  its  people.  At  the 
same  time,  it  enhanced  one's  veneration  for  the  actual 
work  done  in  its  care  of  souls  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 


228  ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

Books  by  Roman  Catholic  writers  gave  me  no  new 
notions  of  my  own  Church.  After  reading  Canon 
Moyes'  Aspects  of  Anglicanism,  the  only  comment  I 
could  make  was,  "  How  well  he  understands."  I  read 
various  books  by  converts ;  Benson's  Confessions  and 
Papers  of  a  Pariah,  Ruville's  Back  to  Holy  Church  and 
Humility,  the  True  Talisman,  Maturin's  Price  of  Unity, 
Ronald  Knox's  Spiritual  JEneid,  and  the  Life  of 
Aubrey  De  Vere.  In  all  of  them,  I  saw  that  I  had 
travelled  far  along  the  same  road,  yet  not  all  its  length ; 
and  in  the  last  of  them  found  the  closest  parallels  to 
my  own  reflections.  Without  venturing  to  put  myself 
into  the  same  category  with  Aubrey  De  Vere,  whose 
character  and  experience  were  wholly  different,  and 
whose  profundity  of  insight  and  power  of  expression 
were  far  beyond  me,  I  could  not  fail  to  see  that  his 
general  view  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  was  that  which  for 
me  was  proving  decisive.  By  1917,  I  had  come  to  think 
of  "  Rome  "  as,  on  the  whole,  the  best  of  Communions. 
As  I  wrote  one  friend,  "If  I  had  children,  I  should 
wish  them  brought  up  Roman  Catholics."  Yet  I  could 
not  think  of  it  as  alone  the  Church.  My  attitude  was 
that  of  patronizing  critic,  not  of  disciple ;  of  connois- 
seur, not  of  sinner  seeking  salvation.  During  the  sum- 
mer of  1918, 1  was  as  near  "  going  over  "  as  at  any  time 
until  the  actual  moment  of  decision  came  a  year  later; 
and  was  never  apparently  farther  away  than  in  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  just  after  leaving  Delaware,  when  people 
in  Wilmington  were  announcing  my  conversion  to  news- 
papers which  bombarded  me  with  telegrams  asking  for 
confirmation.  There  were  many  fluctuations. 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM  229 

Newspaper  comment  at  the  time  of  my  leaving  my 
diocese  brought  numerous  messages  from  Catholics,  kind 
and  shy  promises  of  prayers  from  priests  and  others, 
sympathetic  communications  from  converts,  a  number 
from  people  who  later  sent  helpful  books.  But  none 
assailed  me  with  arguments,  or  tried  to  force  matters 
by  hastening  conviction.  I  am  told  that  I  was  remem- 
bered in  many  prayers  and  masses;  but  so  far  as  dis- 
cussion went,  I  was  left  alone.  The  only  pressure 
brought  to  bear  on  me  was  by  Episcopalian  friends,  a 
few  of  whom  tried  to  hurry  me  out  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  to  gratify  their  curiosity  as  to  what  I  was 
going  to  do.  I  groped  my  own  way  to  the  portals  of 
the  Church,  and  found  many  to  welcome  and  help,  but 
none  who  tried  to  drag  me  in.  I  have  had  to  separate 
from  all  old  friends,  to  lose  a  few ;  but  I  seem  to  be  find- 
ing many  new  ones.  From  those  whom  I  have  left,  I 
have  had  most  kind  and  generous  treatment,  especially 
from  the  magnanimous  Bishops  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  From  Delaware,  the  only  messages  have  been 
assurances  that,  although  official  ties  are  broken,  per- 
sonal relations  remain  the  same  as  ever. 

"September  20,   1919. 

"  Is  your  letter  an  instance  of  '  No  case;  abuse  the 
plaintiff's  attorney'?  You  say  nothing  of  the  English 
Reformation  and  actual  work  of  the  Roman  Church,  to 
which  mine  refers,  but  simply  pitch  into  me.  I  undertake 
no  self-defence.  I  admit  I  am  very  unsatisfactory,  a  very 
poor  champion  of  any  cause:  nevertheless  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  sense  in  my  opinions.  You  may  give  sentence 
against  me  on  all  the  counts  in  your  indictment,  if  you 


230          ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM 

choose,  though  I  myself  might  qualify  the  judgments  just 
a  bit.  Take  the  items. 

"  '  Out  of  health  and  incapable  of  calm  judgment.'  It 
is  quite  true  that  I  have  been  frequently  unwell  during  the 
past  ten  years ;  but  the  illness  seems  to  have  been  the  result 
of  perplexities,  not  the  cause  of  them.  During  the  past 
two  summers,  in  which  I  have  been  reaching  my  decisions,  I 
have  been  in  excellent  condition,  and  am  perfectly  well  now. 
Several,  who  have  seen  me  lately,  say  that  I  have  dropped 
off  ten  years  since  last  spring;  and  this  in  spite  of  keen 
anxieties.  I  plead  '  Not  guilty.' 

"  '  Academic  and  doctrinaire.'  Again,  '  not  guilty.'  In 
my  academic  days,  I  was  quite  content  with  my  Anglicanism. 
It  was  practical  experience  that  punctured  it. 

' '  Ungrateful.'  If  by  this  you  mean  that  I  fail  to 
recognize  that  all  sorts  of  good  things  have  come  to  me 
through  the  Episcopal  Church,  you  are  wrong.  If  you 
blame  me  for  not  holding  my  post  after  I  have  lost  faith  in 
what  it  stands  for,  or  for  thinking  that  I  am  bound  to  say 
plainly  what  I  now  think,  and  why  I  think  it,  you  are 
wrong  again;  but  this  time  not  as  to  fact  merely,  but  as  to 
principle. 

"  '  Diocesan  worries.'  I  don't  know  to  what  you  refer. 
Of  course  I  have  had  plenty  of  them  as  part  of  every 
day's  work.  I  should  be  utterly  ashamed  of  myself  if  I 
hadn't.  But  I  know  of  no  bishop  who  seems  to  have  had 
so  few.  As  for  those  of  the  past  two  years,  I  have  been 
too  far  gone  to  heed  them.  A  dying  man  is  indifferent  to 
sounds  in  the  next  room. 

"  '  Levity/  If  you  really  think  I  have  any,  '  Guilty ' — 
but  glad  of  it!  I  didn't  know  I  had  any  levity  left.  But 
I  consider  myself  fully  entitled  to  all  vestiges  of  youthful 
frivolity  which  have  survived  the  ordeals  of  the  past  ten 
years,  and  regard  them  as  proofs  of  strength  and  sweet- 


ATTRACTION  TO  ROMANISM:       231 

ness  of  character!  In  any  guilt  of  this  sort  I  glory;  and 
you  may  fine  me  for  contempt  of  court  if  you  please ! 

"  I  could  make  out  a  better  case  than  you  have  done.  You 
have  omitted  the  two  charges  on  which  you  could  score  most, 
'  narrowly  ecclesiastical '  and  '  antiquarian.'  I  should  plead 
'  guilty  '  to  '  ecclesiastical/  though  not  to  '  narrowly,'  and 
shamelessly  concede  that  I  care  more  for  a  single  Catacomb 
than  for  a  whole  batch  of  Caroline  Divines! 

"  The  whole  case  against  me  may  go  by  default ;  but  I 
wish  you  would  weigh  what  I  have  written." 

"  October  4>,  1919. 

"  Your  imagination  is  very  charitable ;  but  you  are  all 
wrong.  I  am  not  a  bit  like  what  you  think,  and  disclaim  all 
the  imputed  good  qualities.  It  is  not  my  '  heart  and  soul ' 
that  are  struggling,  but  my  head.  You  seem  to  picture  a 
gentle  lamb,  sighing  for  the  shelter  of  the  Fold.  Nonsense. 
As  matter  of  fact,  I  am  simply  butting  in  like  an  old  goat !  " 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    PAPACY 

THE  many  things  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
which  challenged  admiration,  and  forced  recognition  of 
its  value  as  a  religious  force  in  America,  did  not  dem- 
onstrate the  possibility  of  accepting  the  Roman  claims, 
even  if  they  created  a  disposition  to  reconsider  them. 
So  far  as  I  can  judge  of  my  attitude  toward  them  in 
the  last  few  years,  it  has  been  more  respectful,  but  not 
less  critical  than  formerly.  In  1915,  I  carefully  stated 
reasons  why  I  could  not  be  a  Roman  Catholic ;  and  there 
was  certainly  no  change  a  year  later.  But  since  that 
time  there  has  been  a  steady  disintegration  of  old  diffi- 
culties, the  effects  of  which  only  became  apparent  dur- 
ing the  past  summer  (1919). 

For  years  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  trend  of 
things  in  the  Christian  world  is  to  give  Catholics  and 
Unitarians  possession  of  the  future:  on  the  one  side, 
a  loosely  compacted  congeries  of  religious  societies,  with 
no  corporate  mind  except  that  individual  members  may 
be  of  what  mind  they  please;  on  the  other,  a  reunited 
phalanx  of  definite  believers  in  the  Incarnation,  and  in 
the  Church  as  its  extension  and  application.*  Hence  I 

*  "  More  and  more  does  it  seem  likely  that  the  alignment  in 
future  is  to  place  in  one  camp  the  mamtainers  of  the  historic 
faith  of  the  New  Testament  over  against  various  forms  of 
Unitarianism,  which  are  likely  more  and  more  explicitly  to 


THE  PAPACY  233 

looked  for  Protestant  federation  on  a  basis  of  constitu- 
tional vagueness  with  recognition  that  Unitarians  are 
its  true  apostles  and  pioneers,  and  was  disposed  to 
think  that  all  Catholics  and  Catholic-minded  people 
should  merge  lesser  differences  and  combine  under  the 
leadership  of  Rome.  Every  indication  that  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  seemed  headed  in  the  Uni- 
tarian direction  suggested  the  duty  of  reconsidering 
one's  attitude  toward  the  Apostolic  See.  I  scrutinized 
the  "  difficulties  "  afresh,  found  that  they  all  seemed 
less  formidable,  and  that  some  had  vanished.  I  cannot 
recall  that  in  a  single  instance  I  knew  at  a  definite 
moment  that  a  special  difficulty  had  been  met.  It  was 
rather  that  from  time  to  time  something  would  suggest 
one  of  them,  and  I  would  see  that  it  was  gone.  "  They 
said,  Who  will  roll  us  away  the  stone  from  the  door  of 
the  sepulchre?  And  they  looked,  and  behold  the  stone 
was  rolled  away."  It  was  the  result  of  subconscious, 
rather  than  conscious,  thought  of  things.  I  cannot 
recall,  either  that,  except  on  some  matters  of  minor 
detail,  I  have  learned  new  arguments,  or  been  specially 
influenced  by  any  person  or  book:  it  is  rather  that  for 
the  first  time  I  have  felt  the  force  of  arguments  long 
known,  if  knowledge  may  be  affirmed  of  what  one  seems 
to  understand  the  meaning,  yet  does  not  feel  the  force. 

abandon  the  New  Testament,  recognizing  that  the  miraculous 
element  is  everywhere  interwoven  in  its  tissue.  If  this  be 
true,  the  future  of  Christianity  will  lie  with  that  Communion 
which  can  best  vindicate  its  claim  to  represent  the  religion 
of  the  New  Testament,  that  is,  Christianity  according  to  the 
apostolic  norm,"  Anglicanism,  p.  85. 


234  THE  PAPACY 

Some  arguments  I  have  long  known,  chiefly  a  priori, 
make  no  impression  on  me  whatever,  as  they  seem  to 
do  on  others. 

The  chief  difficulties  were  historical,  and  these  such 
as  seemed  to  relate  to  the  Early  Church  and  to  the 
Eastern  Churches,  rather  than  to  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Greatest  of  all  was  the  claim  made  for  the 
Papacy.  Once  this  could  be  accepted,  "  Rome  "  would 
be  recognized  as  the  Catholic  Church ;  and  the  one  prac- 
tical duty  was  simple  obedience. 

1.  My  belief  was  that  History  showed  the  Papacy 
to  be  a  purely  ecclesiastical  development;  due  to  the 
greatness  of  the  Imperial  City,  to  the  Apostolic  tradi- 
tions of  the  See,  to  its  consistently  good  record,  to  a 
combination  of  political  conditions  which  forced  it  into 
prominence,  and,  quite  subordinately  to  the  ambition 
of  certain  Popes.  Most  of  its  greatness  seemed  to  have 
been  thrust  upon  it  by  needs  of  the  Church.  Yet  it 
was  merely  a  patriarchate  inflated  by  feudalism,  emi- 
nently useful  in  many  ways  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  cor- 
responding to  nothing  in  the  Divine  constitution  of  the 
Church.  Its  claim  to  be  this  had  been  the  great  cause 
of  disunion  between  East  and  West.  This  view  was 
due  to  failure  to  see  constitutional  significance  in  Our 
Lord's  words  to  St.  Peter  and  to  the  comparative 
lateness  of  emphatic  assertions  of  the  Petrine  claim. 
I  recognized  that  from  the  fifth  century  on,  it  had 
been  made  with  increasing  clearness  and  gradually 
wider  recognition:  I  was  disposed  latterly  to  date  it 
back  to  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  as  some- 
thing dimly  acknowledged  by  the  Church;  and  I  knew 


THE  PAPACY  235 

that  in  Rome  itself  belief  in  the  primacy  as  Petrine,  not 
merely  Roman,  was  attested  for  the  late  third  century. 
I  was  convinced  that  mediaeval  and  modern  pretensions 
of  the  Papacy  were  clearly  disproved  by  the  history  of 
the  early  Roman  Church  itself. 

The  following  passages  from  my  History  textbook 
indicate  my  understanding  of  the  facts. 

"  The  Church  of  Rome  was  always  the  most  powerful 
Church  in  Christendom;  but  its  early  precedence  in  honor 
and  influence  fell  far  short  of  the  developments  of  mediaeval 
and  modern  times.  The  primacy  of  honor  held  by  the 
Roman  Church  is  one  thing;  the  monarchical  supremacy  of 
the  Roman  Bishop  is  another.  It  is  the  last  which  consti- 
tutes the  essence  of  the  papal  claim.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
question  of  the  existence  of  the  claim,  and  of  increasing 
acquiescence  in  it,  from  the  fifth  century  onward.  There  is 
no  unmistakable  proof  of  it  at  an  earlier  date,  though  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  did  not  exist.  The  first  indisputable 
evidence  connects  it  with  Innocent  I  (401-417);  but  it  is 
not  only  possible,  but  probable,  that  it  was  inherited,  rather 
than  invented,  by  him.  The  evidence  seems  to  show  its 
absence  from  the  minds  of  Roman  Bishops  down  to  the 
middle  of  the  fourth  century;  yet  some  of  the  late  fourth 
century  Bishops  may  have  entertained  it,  especially 
Damasus  I  (366-384)." 

"  Roman  Catholicism  combines  the  ideas  of  Romanism, 
the  synonym  of  Empire,  and  of  Catholicism,  belief  in  the 
world-wide  Church.  In  the  successive  aspects  of  papal 
history,  there  is  quite  as  much  of  Julius  Caesar  as  of  St. 
Peter.  In  theory,  the  association  of  Church  and  State  was 
intended  to  spiritualize  the  State ;  as  matter  of  fact,  the 
effect  has  too  often  been  to  secularize  the  Church." 


236  THE  PAPACY 

"  Rome  was  Capital  City  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  the 
centre  and  source  of  political  authority.  Its  Church  had 
always  been  the  most  powerful  in  the  western  half  of  the 
Empire,  and  also,  more  than  any  other  one  Church,  influ- 
ential everywhere.  Its  greatness  was  also  due  to  its  excel- 
lent record  and  its  apostolic  associations.  It  had  always 
recalled  its  early  connection  with  the  great  Apostles,  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  from  the  third  century  emphasized 
its  connection  with  St.  Peter  whose  '  chair '  the  Roman 
Bishops  occupied.  But  the  theory  that  St.  Peter  and  after 
him  the  Roman  Bishops  were  in  a  unique  sense  Vicars  of 
Christ  does  not  clearly  emerge  until  the  fifth  century." 

"  The  beginning  of  definite  papal  claims  must  be  assumed 
for  a  time  near  the  episcopate  of  Damasus;  but  circum- 
stances paving  the  way  for  it  are  to  be  found  earlier  still. 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  connect  the  origin  of  papal 
thoughts  with  Constantine's  gift  to  Melchiades  of  the 
Lateran  Palace,  property  of  the  family  of  the  murdered 
Empress  Fausta.  .  .  .  The  Kingdom  of  this  World  was 
seeking  the  favor  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  Inevitably  the 
great  thought  came  that  Christ  had  conquered  Caesar,  and 
that  Caesar's  realms  must  henceforth  be  ruled  in  the  Name 
of  Christ.  Rome  again  should  rule  the  world,  but  now  in 
behalf  of  God :  it  was  stiU  to  be  ruling  City,  but  as  Capital 
of  God's  Kingdom.  Such  an  ambition  for  the  Roman 
Church  and  Roman  Bishops  was  natural  and  noble.  The 
trouble  was  that  in  the  event  the  spirit  of  Christ  affected 
the  Empire  less  than  the  spirit  of  Caesar  dominated  the 
Church.  The  change  in  the  Constantinian  age  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  estimating  the  causes  of  the  Papacy; 
there  was  solid  ground  for  the  stress  laid  centuries  later  on 
the  forged  '  Donation  of  Constantine.'  .  .  . 

"  Quite  apart  from  the  greatness  of  the  Roman  Church 
as  Church  of  the  Capital,  there  were  features  in  its  record 


THE  PAPACY  237 

which  gave  moral  and  ecclesiastical  pre-eminence.  During 
the  first  three  centuries  no  other  Church  had  so  consistent 
a  record  for  orthodoxy  and  good  works.  Rome  had  always 
been  staunchly  loyal  to  the  faith,  and  had  been  the  natural 
centre  of  the  Church's  chief  philanthropies.  Moreover,  no 
other  Church  had  so  rich  an  apostolic  heritage.  Many 
eastern  Churches  had  apostolic  associations,  and  could  claim 
to  preserve  intact  apostolic  traditions.  Ephesus,  for  ex- 
ample, claimed  a  monopoly  of  St.  John.  But  Rome  traced 
its  beginnings  to  the  two  chief  Apostles,  both  of  whom,  as 
martyrs,  had  '  watered  it  with  their  blood.'  Over  their 
graves  Constantine  built  the  finest  of  the  early  basilicas. 
Rome  was  the  Apostolic  See,  not  only  as  the  only  see  in  the 
West  having  apostolic  founders,  but  as  having  a  memory 
of  apostolic  martyrs  without  parallel  in  Christendom.  The 
traces  of  early  art  in  the  catacombs  show  how  constantly 
the  Roman  Christians  were  thinking  of  their  special  connec- 
tion with  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul." 

"  Controversialists  have  tried  to  throw  doubt  on  the  con- 
nection of  the  great  Apostles,  especially  St.  Peter,  with 
Rome,  and  to  do  so  have  ignored  a  great  body  of  evidence. 
At  present  no  scholar  of  eminence  undertakes  to  dispute  the 
validity  of  this.  We  do  not  know  details  of  the  work  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  the  Capital ;  but  both  died  martyrs 
under  Nero.  ...  Of  St.  Peter  we  know  nothing  clearly 
except  the  circumstances  of  his  death.  Tradition  speaks 
of  a  connexion  of  twenty-five  years.  It  is  possible  that  that 
period  elapsed  between  his  first  arrival  and  his  death;  but 
he  was  almost  certainly  not  in  Rome  for  the  whole  of  the 
time;  nor  was  he  regarded  as  head  of  the  Roman  Church 
when  St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans  about  the  year  56. 
From  this  Epistle  to  the  Romans  we  learn  the  names  of 
many  Christians  then  in  Rome,  representing  apparently  all 
parts  of  the  Empire,  It  was  inevitable  that  there  should 


238  THE  PAPACY 

be  many  in  the  great  central  City,  arriving  singly  or  in 
small  groups,  joining  others  of  their  faith,  gradually  coming 
to  know  of  other  sets  of  Christians,  finally  coalescing  in 
one  Roman  Church.  Who  was  the  first  follower  of  Our 
Lord  to  set  foot  in  the  pagan  Capital  we  do  not  know. 
'  Christianity  was  self-sown  in  Rome.'  There  were  numbers 
twenty-five  years  after  the  Crucifixion  and  Resurrection ;  the 
first  probably  came  very  soon  after  those  events."  * 

I  was  never  in  the  least  unwilling  to  see  evidence  for 
Petrine  primacy,  merely  concerned  to  recognize  no  con- 
ception of  primacy  which  the  earliest  evidence  did  not 
warrant.  The  chief  fact  that  seemed  to  disprove  the 
latter  theories  of  this  was  the  invariable  coupling,  in  the 
few  literary  references  to  Roman  beginnings  which  have 
survived  the  second  century,  of  the  names  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul.  Rome  was  Apostolic  See  from  its  having 
been  founded  by  two  Apostles :  it  seemed  to  have  been 
foreign  to  the  mind  of  the  early  Roman  Church  to 
think  of  St.  Peter  alone.  This  showed  characteristic 
dependence  on  literary  evidence  only.  The  catacomb 
representations  of  St.  Peter  as  Moses  first  made  me  see 
that  this  did  not  give  the  whole  truth ;  and  gradually  I 
came  to  attach  more  importance  to  the  evidence  of  local 
traditions  and  institutions  after  fuller  study  of  De 
Rossi,  Lanciani,  and  the  books  of  Mr.  A.  S.  Barnes. 
These  studies  were  going  on  in  seminary  days ;  but  I 
did  not  see  their  full  significance,  owing  doubtless  to 
my  belief  that  there  was  no  Petrine  primacy  in  Scrip- 
ture. 

I  was  not  unwilling  to  see  this,  and  had  no  patience 

*  Outlines  of  Church  History,  II :  pp.  9f,  19,  36,  146,  155, 


THE  PAPACY  239 

with  people  who  slurred  over  the  Petrine  texts.  I  my- 
self habitually  quoted  and  preached  from  them.  Yet 
I  was  convinced  that  Our  Lord's  dealings  with  St.  Peter, 
as  leading  Apostle  and  typical  disciple,  even  when 
recognizing  their  uniqueness,  had  no  bearing  on  the 
constitution  of  the  Church.  With  the  fixed  idea  of  "  the 
Twelve  "  as  fundamental,  I  could  see  nothing  essentially 
significant  in  the  prominence  of  the  One.  Our  Lord's 
special  relation  to  St.  Peter  I  paralleled  with  that  to 
St.  John.  "  Thou  art  Peter  "  was  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  true  discipleship  is  founded  on  faith  in  Our 
Lord's  Divinity.  Assuming  parity  among  Apostles,  in 
spite  of  the  accidental  prominence  of  a  few  of  them, 
I  went  on  to  assume  parity  among  Bishops,  with 
no  differences  touching  the  constitution  of  the  Church. 
What  St.  Peter  was  among  Apostles,  I  recognized 
the  Pope  to  be  among  Bishops:  but  I  did  not  see 
that  this  was  more  than  primacy  of  honor  and  in- 
fluence. The  Petrine  claims  I  believed  to  be  an  after- 
thought. 

It  was  only  during  the  summer  of  1918  that  I  saw 
more  than  this  in  the  significance  of  the  Petrine  texts. 
I  do  not  recall  what  led  to  this.  I  think  it  was  recogni- 
tion that  Our  Lord's  commission  of  St.  Peter  is  quite 
as  formal  as  that  of  the  Twelve;  that,  so  far  as  the 
Gospels  record,  they  are  of  parallel  importance;  and 
that  it  is  just  as  reasonable  to  take  the  one  set  as 
part  of  the  constitution  and  charter  of  the  Church 
as  the  other.  In  any  case,  I  can  only  bear  my  wit- 
ness that,  in  daring  to  see  special  meaning  for  all 
time  in  Our  Lord's  dealing  with  St.  Peter  without 


240  THE  PAPACY 

fear  of  controversial  admissions,  I  have  a  sense  of 
freedom  in  reading  the  Gospels  I  never  had  before. 
I  have  dropped  fetters,  not  assumed  them.  I  do  not, 
however,  as  some  do,  find  Petrine  primacy  in  St.  Paul's 
Epistles. 

The  crux  of  papal  contention  is,  of  course,  the  mean- 
ing of  Our  Lord's  commission  to  St.  Peter.  If  the 
Church  jure  Divino  has  a  primacy  in  its  apostolate, 
and  a  primacy  therefore  in  its  episcopate  which  per- 
petuates the  apostolate,  there  are  few  or  none  who 
would  question  that  this  has  existed  in  the  Bishops  of 
Rome.  It  has  never  been  assumed  that  Rome  usurped 
a  primacy  rightly  established  in  Jerusalem  or  else- 
where. Granted  a  primacy,  real  not  merely  nominal, 
it  must  be  conceded  to  the  sole  claimant,  the  Roman 
Papacy. 

The  evidence  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  primacy  is 
analogous  to  that  for  the  episcopate.  The  origins  of 
the  episcopate  in  Our  Lord's  choice  and  commission  of 
the  Twelve  stand  out  in  the  clear  light  of  Gospel  testi- 
mony. By  the  last  quarter  of  the  second  century,  the 
episcopate  is  everywhere  established,  claiming  to  per- 
petuate the  apostolate,  and  lasting  unbroken  to  the 
present  day.  The  evidence  for  it  from  this  date  is  so 
full  and  irrefragable  that  it  is  futile  to  quibble  at  it. 
But  for  the  intervening  period  of  a  century  and  a  half 
the  evidence  is  not  so  clear,  but  is  sufficient.  I  think 
it  was  Bishop  Gore  who  compared  this  to  a  tunnel,  the 
darkness  of  which  was  broken  by  occasional  lights,  fre- 
quent enough  to  show  that  the  apostolate  of  the  Gospels 
and  the  episcopate  of  the  age  of  Tertullian  and 


THE  PAPACY  241 

Irenseus  are  one  in  the  principle  and  perpetuate  Di- 
vinely-given authority  in  the  Church.  Those  who  re- 
ject the  evidence  of  the  "  tunnel "  period  do  so  not 
because  of  its  inherent  weakness,  but  because  of  presup- 
positions that  the  apostolate  represented  nothing  per- 
manently essential  to  the  Church. 

So  of  the  primacy.  Its  Gospel  origins  and  its  his- 
torical establishment  at  a  certain  date  are  in  bright 
light :  but  there  is  a  "  tunnel  "  period  for  which  the 
evidence  is  comparatively  fragmentary.  Yet  it  is  quite 
sufficient  except  for  those  whose  antecedent  assumptions 
compel  the  rejection  of  all  evidence  whatsoever.  As  to 
the  length  of  the  tunnel  there  will  be  difference  of 
opinion.  Those  who  concentrate  attention  on  Rome 
itself  would  consider  it  shorter  than  those  who  think 
more  of  general  recognition  without.  It  would  seem 
to  me  that  it  does  not  terminate  until  the  time  of  St. 
Cyprian;  but  I  can  see  that  many  would  not  extend  it 
beyond  the  pontificates  of  Eleutherus  and  Victor.  That 
a  "  tunnel  "  period  of  some  duration  must  be  recog- 
nized would  seem  obvious  either  from  the  standpoint  of 
scientific  history  or  of  effective  apologetic.  I  have  for 
many  years  been  familiar  with  most  details  of  this  evi- 
dence without  seeing  their  significance  on  account  of 
my  presuppositions,  although  I  objected  to  too  much 
explaining  away  of  Victor  and  Stephen.  It  was  to 
Batiffol's  Primitive  Catholicism  that  I  owe  chiefly  the 
dropping  of  scales,  especially  for  his  comments  on  the 
significance  of  the  controversy  between  Pope  Stephen 
and  St.  Cyprian  and  St.  Firmilian. 

It  is  fair  to  recognize  that  special  difficulty  has  been 


242  THE  PAPACY 

created  for  students  of  papal  history  by  tampering  with 
the  true  evidence.  Some  of  this  has  been  due  to  un- 
critical, rather  than  to  unscrupulous,  copyists,  who 
merely  wished  to  add  finishing  touches  to  manuscripts ; 
and  it  affects  all  history,  not  papal  alone:  but  there 
have  been  also  some  deliberate  falsifications.  The  great 
example  is  that  of  the  Forged  Decretals.  They  pro- 
vided "  corroborative  detail  intended  to  give  artistic 
verisimilitude  "  to  what  seemed  "  an  otherwise  bald  and 
unconvincing  narrative,"  with  the  consequence  that 
when  their  character  of  merely  artistic  detail  was  ex- 
posed, the  impression  left  was  that  the  true  narrative 
was  certainly  unconvincing.  They  provided  artificial 
light  for  the  tunnel;  and  when  its  glare  was  extin- 
guished, there  was  a  sense  of  dense  darkness  in  which 
dimmer  natural  lights  were  not  visible.  The  fact  of 
forgery  seemed  to  prove  the  necessity  of  it,  and  hence 
that  there  was  no  genuine  evidence  at  all.  Those  who 
in  the  ninth  century  fabricated  and  used  this  forgery 
were  among  the  worst  enemies  the  papal  cause  has  ever 
had.  Another  example  of  the  way  in  which  the  finish- 
ing touches  of  an  editor  may  lessen,  rather  than  ac- 
centuate, the  force  of  his  text  is  afforded  by  the  inter- 
polation in  the  De  Unitate  of  St.  Cyprian.  Slight 
additions  were  made  in  the  interests  of  Petrine  primacy. 
The  knowledge  that  this  was  done,  calling  special  at- 
tention to  these  little  things  Cyprian  did  not  say,  ac- 
tually distracts  attention  from  the  big  things  that  he 
did.  The  evidence  of  the  De  Unitate  is  the  most  strik- 
ing that  comes  from  the  early  Church.  Its  effect  is 
lessened  for  many  who  transfer  to  the  whole  a  suspicion 


THE  PAPACY  243! 

which  rightly  attaches  to  added  phrases  of  no  great 
importance.* 

The  evidence  for  the  early  period  is  not  so  full  as  it 
becomes  after  the  late  third  century :  but  it  is  sufficient 
to  establish  the  principle  of  primacy,  dimly  exhibited 
and  simply  applied,  but  still  continuous.  It  is  closely 
parallel  to  that  for  the  episcopate,  as  is  natural,  and 
has  many  analogies  with  that  for  the  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture. Those  whose  belief  in  the  Papacy  rests,  as  it 
normally  should,  on  their  experience  of  the  living 
Church  of  which  it  is  living  Voice,  are  not  troubled 
by  Forged  Decretals  or  anything  that  belongs  merely 
to  a  dim  and  dusty  past.  They  are  naturally  irritated 
by  antiquarian  fidgets.  They  see  that  "  the  appeal  to 
History  "  is  heresy  when  it  signifies  appeal  from  the 
Living  Church  to  a  Church  long  dead:  but  they  must 
also  see  that  the  appeal  to  History  is  an  act  of  faith, 
when  it  signifies  confidence  that  the  Church  is  always 
the  same,  applying  the  faith  once  delivered  to  varying 
needs  in  varying  ways,  one  in  principle  though  manifold 
in  application. 

The  evidence  for  the  episcopate  and  for  the  primacy 
are  also  parallel  in  that  what  is  continuous  is  the  fact 
and  principle,  not  the  details  in  application.  It  is 
in  this  sense,  and  this  only,  that  the  Vatican  Definition 
speaks  of  the  "  sure  and  constant  witness  of  every  age." 
This  is  another  way  of  speaking  of  "  development." 
It  is  often  asserted  that  the  decrees  of  1870  forbade 
recognition  of  this,  making  it  impossible,  for  example, 

*  I  have  read  the  arguments  aiming  to  prove  that  the  inter- 
polations are  also  Cyprianic,  but  am  not  convinced  by  them. 


244  THE  PAPACY 

to  hold  such  a  theory  as  satisfied  Newman  in  1845. 
This  is  a  mistake.  Catholic  writers,  dealing  with  all 
aspects  of  the  Church's  life,  see  development  in  one 
form  or  another,  continuous  principles  changing  their 
outward  form  through  the  number,  variety,  and  com- 
pleteness of  successive  applications.  With  all  insist- 
ence on  the  completeness  of  revelation  and  on  the  iden- 
tity and  continuity  of  principles  underlying  the  life  of 
the  Church,  there  is  full  recognition  of  development 
both  in  faith  and  morals,  by  way  of  fuller  apprehension 
of  the  content  of  revelation,  and  of  more  perfect  appli- 
cation of  it  in  practical  detail. 

So  of  the  primacy.  What  was  Divinely  ordered  in 
the  constitution  of  the  Church,  by  special  commission 
of  the  "  first "  among  Apostles,  was  perpetuated  in 
the  Church  by  the  line  of  those  recognized  as  first 
among  Bishops.  Many  opposed  and  criticized  indi- 
vidual Popes  and  censured  them  for  misuse  of  author- 
ity; but  none  questioned  their  first  place.  Whatever 
be  the  source  of  the  assertion,  wrongly  attributed  in 
the  fifth  century  to  the  Nicene  Canons,  the  fact  is  in- 
disputable, Ecclesia  Romana  semper  habuit  princi- 
patum.  This  principatus,  by  whatever  name  it  is 
called,  passed  through  many  phases  and  stages,  pa- 
ternal, patriarchal,  feudal,  regal,  imperial.  For  great 
stretches  of  history  it  was  deep-dyed  with  murky 
shades  of  secular  ambition  and  politics.  In  this  it  re- 
flected the  experiences  of  the  Church  as  a  whole,  and  of 
the  episcopate  in  particular.  But,  from  beginning  to 
end,  the  principle  of  spiritual  primacy  has  been  the  one 
safeguard  of  the  Church's  unity  and  independence. 


THE  PAPACY  245 

Infallibility  is  simply  an  application  of  this.  If  the 
Pope  holds  highest  authority  in  the  Church,  his  official 
decisions  represent  the  last  word  in  controversy.  Ulti- 
mate decision  must  rest  somewhere:  and  those  who  be- 
lieve in  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  and  in  the 
primacy  as  integral  to  the  Church,  can  have  no  diffi- 
culties over  Papal  Infallibility.  As  defined  by  the  Vati- 
can dogma,  this  is  strictly  limited  and  constitutional, 
applying  only  to  questions  of  Faith  and  Morals,  when 
the  Pope  speaks  as  Shepherd  and  Doctor  for  the 
Church.  The  discussions  of  1870  emphasized  quite  as 
much  the  limitations  of  the  Pope's  primatial  authority 
as  the  indisputable  fact  of  it. 

2.  Two  sets  of  considerations  have  made  me  a  be- 
liever in  the  Papacy,  the  first  historical,  the  second 
practical.  The  latter  forced  themselves  into  considera- 
tion through  my  experience  as  an  Anglican  Bishop. 
For  over  ten  years,  I  have  been  trying  to  act  as  Bishop 
of  the  Catholic  Church  of  God,  and  to  relate  my  official 
duties  to  the  ruling  ideas  of  the  episcopate  as  they  ap- 
pear in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers.  Of  these,  two  stand 
out  in  chief  prominence :  the  episcopate  was  guardian  of 
the  Faith,  and  it  was  the  guarantee  of  unity.  Matthias 
was  chosen  to  be  with  the  other  Apostles  a  witness;  simi- 
larly all  Bishops  are  witnesses  to  the  Risen  Lord. 
Hence  the  solemn  profession  of  faith  at  episcopal  con- 
secrations required  by  the  Catholic  ordinals.  To  en- 
sure this,  there  must  be  authority  to  require  loyalty  to 
the  Faith,  and  an  authority  to  interpret  it.  There  can 
be  no  loyal  witness  unrelated  to  a  principle  of  authority 
behind  the  official  witnesses.  I  have  been  led  to  think 


246  THE  PAPACY 

of  this,  not  as  logical  theory,  but  as  practical  necessity. 
As  a  Bishop,  I  wished  to  bear  witness  to  the  Faith,  and 
tried  to  do  so  in  various  formal  ways.  I  was  free  to  do 
so  in  any  way  I  saw  fit.  But  there  was  a  constant  feel- 
ing of  having  "  nothing  behind  " ;  that  the  utterances, 
no  matter  what  their  substance,  were  merely  expressions 
of  individual  opinion.  The  Communion  for  which  I  was 
commissioned  to  act  expected  me  to  be  loyal  to  the 
Faith  only  as  not  insisting  on  definite  interpretations. 
Its  articles  must  be  treated  as  susceptible  of  various 
meanings,  some  of  these  contradictory.  I  believed  in 
the  literal  Virgin  Birth  and  literal  Resurrection.  I 
taught  both,  and  that  they  were  of  essential  impor- 
tance. Yet  I  might  equally  well,  as  at  least  two  of  my 
episcopal  brethren  did  with  equal  formality,  have 
taught  that  the  two  doctrines  were  not  to  be  literally 
accepted,  or  especially  to  be  insisted  on.  Church  cus- 
tom backed  this  attitude  rather  than  the  other.  The 
Anglican  system  provides  no  good  working  safeguard 
of  loyalty  in  witness,  as  none  so  keenly  as  a  Bishop  can 
feel.  Among  Anglican  Bishops  most  are  orthodox  as 
concerns  historic  interpretation  of  the  Christological 
portions  of  the  Creed,  a  few  heretical,  a  great  number 
hazy  and  indifferent.  All  can  express  their  views,  or 
lack  of  them,  and  may  do  so  with  vehemence:  the  ma- 
jority may  repeatedly  adopt  asseverations  of  devotion 
to  the  ancient  Faith:  but  so  far  as  the  Church  system 
goes,  official  teachers  must  be  left  to  jog  along,  with 
no  clear  apprehension  of  dogmatic  truth,  no  clear  as- 
sertion of  it,  and  nothing  to  clarify  either  apprehension 
or  assertion.  There  is  no  ultimate  authority  to  insist 


THE  PAPACY  247 

on  loyalty  to  the  Faith  once  delivered.  The  historic 
episcopate  was  dogmatic  in  function,  and  intensely  loyal 
in  spirit:  the  Anglican  episcopate,  also  loyal  in  spirit, 
is  locally  adapted  by  systems,  political  in  England, 
congregational  in  America,  into  an  undogmatic  at- 
titude, the  actual  influence  of  which  is  anti-dog- 
matic. Without  a  basis  and  background  of  cogent 
authority,  the  episcopate  cannot  function  as  witness 
to  the  Faith.  In  theory,  the  devotion  of  conscience 
to  Our  Lord  may  provide  this :  in  the  practical  work- 
ing system  of  the  visible  Church,  something  more  is 
necessary. 

Study  of  history  always  made  me  see  clearly  that  in 
the  See  of  Rome  there  had  been  the  clearest  loyalty  to 
the  Incarnation,  an  actual  perpetuation  of  the  faith 
of  St.  Peter,  although  I  attached  no  theoretical  im- 
portance to  it.  This  I  had  in  mind  in  saying  in  1915: 
"  The  Bishop  of  New  York  (Dr.  Greer)  is  reported  to 
have  said  in  an  address  at  Cooper  Union,  *  The  great 
secret  of  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Church  is  its  con- 
sistent witness  to  the  supernatural.'  This  is  certainly 
true.  In  these  days  of  drift  away  from  the  supernatu- 
ral, which  means  from  religion,  how  thankful  must  we 
be  to  the  Roman  Church  for  its  exhibition  of  Petrine 
loyalty  to  the  fundamental  Christian  truth.  How  en- 
couraging to  feel  certain  that  the  authoritative  force 
of  half-Christendom  will  be  steadily  on  the  side  of  re- 
ligion as  a  fact  of  Divine  Revelation  rather  than  of 
mere  individual  discovery."  *  Before  accepting  the 
principle  exhibited,  I  recognized  the  fact  that  the 

•  Issues  before  the  Church,  p.  32. 


248  ^  THE  PAPACY 

Papacy  has  been  the  chief  Fidei  Defensor*  I  could 
see  that  as  matter  of  fact  the  Papacy  discharged  a 
function  in  regard  to  the  Roman  Catholic  episcopate, 
for  which  the  Anglican  Churches  had  no  substitute. 
Whether  in  theory,  King,  Parliament,  General  Conven- 
tion, or  House  of  Bishops,  were  expected  to  do  it,  they 
did  not  in  fact.  Hence  the  sense  of  the  practical  neces- 
sity of  something  like  the  Papacy  to  enable  the  episco- 
pate to  discharge  its  proper  functions  predisposed  me 
to  look  more  favorably  upon  its  claims.  (I  am  not  here 
trying  to  suggest  the  answer  to  the  question,  Quis  cus- 
todiet  custodientium  custodem?)  Experience  has 
shown  that  in  actual  practice  neither  Royal  Suprem- 
acy or  General  Convention  has  been  a  satisfactory  sub- 
stitute for  a  Pope.  Anglican  Bishops  all  may,  and  a 
few  do,  drift  from  the  Faith :  and  this  must  be  so  long 
as  there  is  a  hydra-headed  hierarchy.  The  matter  re- 
duces itself  to  one  of  authority  inherent  in  the  priest- 
hood— Sacrament  of  Orders.  The  Papacy  merely 
focuses  an  authoritative  priesthood.  Belief  in  priests 
makes  possible  belief  in  the  Pope:  rejection  of  the  Pope 
usually,  though  not  always,  involves  rejection  of  any 
real  belief  in  priests.  The  feeling  here  expressed  does 
not  indicate  craving  for  authority  as  such,  but  rather 
a  practical  sense  that  central  and  ultimate  authority  is 
necessary  to  safeguard  teaching  and  tradition  of  the 
Faith. 

*  I  once  heard  the  remark :  "  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  must  be  right  in  his  politics,  but  he  may 
believe  as  much  or  little  as  he  pleases,  more  conveniently 
little:  but  the  Pope  may  be  a  perfect  fool  in  his  politics,  but 
he  simply  must  not  monkey  with  the  Faith." 


THE  PAPACY  249 

3.  The  episcopate  is  not  only  Divinely-established 
guardian  of  the  Faith  but  also  the  bond  and  guarantee 
of  Unity.  Our  Lord  chose  and  commissioned  Twelve 
Apostles,  who  were  to  sit  on  twelve  thrones:  but  He 
did  not  thereby  inaugurate  twelve  Churches.*  The 
Apostolate  was  to  be  a  united  Apostolate,  the  founda- 
tion of  One  Apostolic  Church ;  and  through  the  unity  of 
its  governing  College,  all  those  admitted  into  the 
Church  by  Apostles  were  through  them  in  unity  with 
each  other  as  well  as  with  the  Church's  Divine  Head. 
The  Apostolate  bound  them  together  and  guaranteed 
the  permanence  of  their  union. 

So  of  the  Episcopate,  the  extension  of  the  Aposto- 
late in  time  and  territory.  The  Episcopate  is  essen- 
tially a  united  Episcopate,  one,  and  the  means  of  creat- 
ing and  preserving  oneness  among  believers.  The 
Apostles  were  severally  and  equally  commissioned  by 
Christ  for  the  first  order  of  ministry  in  His  Church : 
so  are  Bishops.  Yet  individuality  of  commission  in- 
volves no  isolation  in  administration,  in  such  a  sense 
that  the  Church  should  be  composed  of  disconnected 
dioceses  and  provinces  in  water-tight  compartments, 
making  each  individual  Bishop  possible  nucleus  of 
schism. f  The  Episcopate  is  one,  a  united  Episcopate, 

*As  St.  Optatus  comments  (Cont.  Farm.,  11:6),  "In  a 
single  Chair  unity  was  to  be  observed  by  all,  so  that  the  rest 
of  the  Apostles  should  not  each  maintain  a  chair  to  them- 
selves; and  that  forthwith  he  should  be  a  schismatic  and  a 
sinner  who  against  that  singular  Chair  set  up  another." 

f  Any  belief  in  Episcopacy  makes  the  diocese  the  admin- 
istrative unit,  the  Bishop  the  centre  of  diocesan  unity. 
Protestantism  in  all  its  forms  abandons  this,  making  the  con- 
gregation the  practical  unit  with  parochial  clergy  as  centres 


250  THE  PAPACY 

not  a  collection  of  Episcopal  units.  If  it  ceases  to  pre- 
serve Catholic  unity,  it  ceases  to  function  as  Episcopate 
in  the  historic  sense. 

As  matter  of  fact,  the  oneness  of  the  Episcopate  has 
been  secured  through  a  Primacy.  This  is  the  point  of 
the  famous  passage  in  St.  Cyprian's  treatise  on  Unity. 
"  Upon  Peter,  being  one,  He  builds  His  Church ;  and 
though  He  gives  to  all  the  Apostles  equal  power  .  .  . 
yet  in  order  to  manifest  unity,  He  has  by  His  own  au- 
thority so  placed  the  source  of  the  same  unity,  as  to 
begin  from  one.  Certainly  the  other  Apostles  also  were 
what  Peter  was,  endued  with  an  equal  fellowship  both  of 
honor  and  power ;  but  a  commencement  is  made  from 
unity,  that  the  Church  may  be  set  before  us  as  one. 
.  .  .  He  who  holds  not  this  unity  of  the  Church,  does 
he  think  he  holds  the  faith?  He  who  strives  against 
and  resists  the  Church,  is  he  assured  that  he  is  in  the 
Church?  For  the  blessed  Apostle  Paul  teaches  the  same 
thing,  and  manifests  the  sacrament  of  unity  speaking  of 
One  Body  and  One  Spirit.  .  .  .  This  unity  firmly 
should  we  hold  and  maintain,  especially  we  Bishops,  pre- 
siding in  the  Church,  in  order  that  we  approve  the  Epis- 
copate itself  to  be  one  and  undivided.  Let  no  one  de- 
ceive the  Brotherhood  by  falsehood ;  no  one  corrupt  the 
truth  of  our  faith  by  a  faithless  treachery.  The  Epis- 
copate is  one;  it  is  a  whole,  in  which  each  enjoys  full 


of  congregational  unity.     Where  Bishops  are  superimposed 
on  this  system,  they  are  mere  bumble-bees,  flitting  from  one 
parochial  flower-bed  to  another,  extracting  pollen  for  diocesan 
missions,  and  incidentally  promoting  cross-fertilization! 
*  St.  Cyprian,  De  Unitate,  4f. 


THE  PAPACY  251 

Belief  in  the  unifying  function  of  the  episcopate  com- 
pels belief  in  a  unifying  force  in  the  episcopate;  and 
hence  establishes  antecedent  probability  of  such  an  in- 
stitution in  the  Church  as,  in  fact,  has  existed  in  the 
Papacy  seated  at  Rome.  The  ancient  Church  knew  of 
autocephalous  Churches,  like  that  of  Cyprus,  falling 
outside  the  ordinary  groupings  into  patriarchates :  but 
it  knew  nothing  of  diocesan  or  provincial  isolation. 
Anything  resembling  the  sixteenth  century  excursion 
of  the  provinces  of  Canterbury  and  York  would  not 
have  been  regarded  as  a  phenomenon  compatible  with 
Catholic  unity,  but  would  have  been  promptly  denomi- 
nated schism. 

Unity  is  dependent  on  something  that  represents 
centre.  It  cannot  be  created  by  agitated  fragments  of 
a  circumference:  it  must  issue  from  a  central  force 
and  be  sustained  by  centripetal  instinct.  There  must 
be  a  centre  of  unity  for  the  Church,  visible  centre  for 
visible  unity ;  there  being  no  greater  difficulty  in  be- 
lieving in  a  primate  as  personal  centre  for  the  episco- 
pate, than  in  a  bishop  as  personal  centre  for  his  diocese, 
or  a  priest  as  personal  centre  for  his  parish.  The  rec- 
ognition of  persona  ecclesiae  in  the  lower  senses  paves 
the  way  for  recognition  of  the  supreme  example  of  it. 
Common  sense  may  suggest  what  must  be,  if  the  visible 
unity  of  the  Church  is  to  be  preserved:  history  shows 
what  has  been.  The  Roman  Papacy  has  been  the  actual 
centre  of  the  most  obvious  visible  unity  the  Church  has 
ever  possessed;  and  attempts  to  preserve  this  on  the 
basis  of  a  non-papal  episcopate  have  in  various  ways 
proved  failures.  Rejection  of  the  Papacy  has  invaria- 


252  THE  PAPACY 

bly  associated  itself  with  principles  ultimately  destruc- 
tive of  all  unity  in,  and  with,  the  Church.  It  is  not 
possible  to  elaborate  this  point.  I  have  chiefly  in  mind 
the  results  in  the  East  and  in  England  of  subjection  of 
the  Church  to  civil  authority.  My  present  object  is 
merely  to  put  myself  on  record  as  having  come  to  hold 
what  had  no  place  in  my  earlier  belief  and  teaching, 
and  to  emphasize  that  the  conviction  springs  from  ten 
years  effort  to  do  the  work  of  a  Bishop  of  the  Church 
of  God  with  the  constant  sense  of  "  nothing  behind." 

A  Catholic  Bishop  should  be  filled  with  an  intense 
consciousness  of  the  unity  of  the  Order  to  which  he 
belongs,  and  of  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  in 
which,  through  his  office,  the  people  of  his  diocese  are 
held.  It  represents  an  instinctive  hold  on  sacramental 
principle.  An  Anglican  Bishop  cannot  have  this.  The 
Bishops  of  the  Episcopal  Church  were  the  finest  and 
most  delightful  set  of  men  I  have  ever  known,  or  expect 
to  know:  so  far  as  personal  respect  and  affection  could 
create  bonds,  there  exists  among  them  a  unity  of  mutual 
respect  and  good  fellowship.  They  can  co-operate  in 
all  sorts  of  good  works  and  combine  for  effective  de- 
nominational activities.  They  accomplish  a  most  credit- 
able quantity  of  work  in  the  triennial  fortnights  of 
hustle  known  as  General  Convention.  They  are  effective 
associates  in  their  own  House  and  in  the  Lambeth  Con- 
ferences every  ten  years  with  all  Bishops  of  the  Angli- 
can Communion.  But  this  is  not  to  experience  the 
sacramental  fellowship  of  which  St.  Cyprian  writes  or 
to  share  the  consciousness,  of  what  their  Order  means 
known  to  Eastern  and  Roman  Bishops.  With  the  ex- 


THE  PAPACY  253 

ception  of  certain  inner  groups,  their  association  is 
more  like  that  of  a  club  of  typical  American  citizens, 
determined  to  help  along  every  sort  of  good  work.  I 
was  forcibly  struck  with  what  is  lacking  in  such  epis- 
copal experience  as  I  knew  in  reading  the  sermon  on 
the  meaning  of  the  pallium,  preached  by  Archbishop 
Bonzano  at  the  investiture  of  Archbishop  Dougherty  of 
Philadelphia. 

I  thought  also  much  of  what  was  signified  by  the  only 
ecclesiastical  unity  in  the  world  at  large  possible  for 
Episcopalians  of  Delaware.  Their  loose  association 
with  Episcopalians  elsewhere,  especially  in  frequent  con- 
ventions ;  the  right  to  communicate  in  Episcopal 
churches  in  all  parts  of  the  British  Empire;  member- 
ship in  a  Communion  constituting  about  a  fourteenth 
part  of  the  Christian  world,  counts  for  much,  and  tends 
to  break  down  the  narrowing  prejudices  of  mere  paro- 
chialism. Yet  it  is  not  the  same  as  the  sense  of  sacra- 
mental brotherhood  known  to  the  ancient  Church,  and 
obviously  possessed  by  Roman  Catholics  everywhere. 
The  difference  in  the  sense  of  what  Church  unity  is  and 
gives  is  not  to  be  measured  numerically  but  intrinsically. 
I  thought  of  these  things  first  in  comparing  the  practi- 
cal advantages  offered  respectively  by  separated  por- 
tions of  the  Catholic  Episcopate,  conceived  of  as  slit 
into  three  lines.  I  now  see  that  the  One  Episcopate 
centred  about  the  Apostolic  See,  the  swarm  about  the 
queen-bee,  is  one  thing,  the  Episcopates  of  the  sepa- 
rated Churches,  even  when  perfectly  valid,  quite  an- 
other. 

The  Papacy,  with  all  the  faults  in  successive  holders. 


254  THE  PAPACY 

with  all  the  admixture  of  sordid  ambitions,  utter  world- 
liness,  and  despicable  intrigue  which  have  disfigured 
parts  of  its  history,  has  nevertheless  stood  chiefly  for 
the  unity  of  the  Church ;  and  care  for  unity  has  been 
a  leading  cause  of  papal  aggrandizement.  As  Duchesne 
comments,  "  Centralization  is  the  organization  of  unity ; 
it  is  also  its  safeguard."  *  In  the  preface  to  this  book 
he  also  comments,  "  La  centralisation  ecclesiastique,  on 
ne  saurait  le  dire  trop  haut,  n'est  pas  un  ideal,  mais  un 
moyen." 

4.  The  historical  evidence  which  seemed  to  me  most 
plainly  subversive  of  papal  pretensions  was  that  of 
the  Canons  of  the  Councils  of  Nica?a,  Constantinople, 
and  Chalcedon.  The  sixth  canon  of  the  first  seemed  to 
place  Roman  jurisdiction  in  Italy  on  a  par  with  that 
of  Alexandria  in  Egypt  and  of  Antioch  in  the  Oriental 
Diocese:  the  third  canon  of  the  second  gave  the  Bishop 
of  Constantinople  precedence  after  the  Roman  Bishop, 
"  because  Constantinople  was  New  Rome,"  seeming  to 
imply  that  secular  greatness  was  the  ground  for  ec- 
clesiastical primacy  in  Old  Rome:  the  famous  twenty- 
eighth  canon  of  the  last  of  these  Councils  asserted  this 
in  set  terms.  That  General  Councils  should  have  pro- 
nounced this  judgment  was  to  my  mind  final,  Roman 
refusals  to  accept  these  canons  notwithstanding.  With 

•  Duchesne  theorizes  little  about  papal  primacy,  although 
providing  materials  from  which  right  deductions  may  be 
made,  especially  in  his  monumental  edition  of  Liber  Ponti- 
ficalia; but  he  has  an  admirable  paragraph  on  papal  develop- 
ment in  the  end  of  the  first  chapter,  on  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, in  figlises  Separees.  "  II  serait  trop  long  d'entrer  ici 
dans  Phistoire,  meme  la  plus  sommaire,  de  cette  centralisation. 


THE  PAPACY  255 

many  others,  I  attached  slight  importance  to  papal 
witness  to  papal  pretensions,  although  I  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  Presbyterians  who  refused  to  accept  the 
testimony  of  bishops  as  to  episcopacy,  or  with  the  Inde- 
pendents who  rejected  Presbyterian  notions  of  Scrip- 
tural polity  because  "  presbyter  was  priest  writ  large." 
Yet  I  always  gave  respectful  heed  to  the  claims  made  by 
some  very  great  Popes,  especially  Leo  I,  whose  single- 
minded  zeal  for  revealed  truth  and  Christian  unity  was 
especially  conspicuous.  It  was  the  reading  of  Allies' 
"Formation  of  Christendom  in  1918  which  first  opened 
my  eyes  to  the  fact  that  it  was  Constantinople,  not 
Rome,  which  imported  imperial  and  secular  standards 
into  the  Church;  and  that  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
tury contests  it  was  Rome  which  was  really  standing  for 
the  supremacy  of  spiritual  authority,  for  unity,  and 
for  ecclesiastical  independence.  It  was  conceivable  that 
Rome  was  in  the  right,  the  canons  of  Councils  domi- 

Contentons-nous  de  constater  que  tout  son  developpement  se 
rattache  aisement  aux  engines,  et  que  si,  dans  ses  stades 
successifs,  il  offre  de  tres  grandes  variations  de  forme  et 
d'intensite,  il  s'inspire,  en  somme,  des  memes  principes,  tend 
vers  le  meme  but.  Principes  et  but  peuvent  s'indiquer  d'un 
mot:  Unum  sint.  La  centralisation  est  1'organisation  de 
1'unite;  elle  en  est  aussi  la  sauvegarde.  On  a  pu  lui  reprocher 
quelquefois  d'etre  trop  etroite,  trop  me'ticuleuse.  Comme 
toutes  les  institutions  de  ce  monde,  elle  est  sujette  aux  abus 
et  aux  reformes.  Si  1'occasion  se  presente  d'en  faire  la 
critique,  on  ne  doit  pas  oublier  les  services  essentials  qu'elle  a 
rendus.  On  ne  doit  pas  non  plus  lui  subordonner  les  fins  plus 
hautes  qui  sont  sa  raison  d'etre.  L'unite  est  1'ideal  de  1'^glise ; 
c'est  son  premier  trait  dans  le  symbole:  Credo  unam  .  .  . 
Ecclesiam.  Qu'on  y  arrive  par  une  voie  ou  par  une  autre, 
I'essentiel  est  d'y  arriver;  le  devoir  est  de  s'y  maintenir." 


256  THE  PAPACY 

nated  by  Constantinopolitan  influence  notwithstanding. 
I  knew  well  enough  the  Roman  estimate  of  "  Byzantin- 
ism,"  but  had  never  before  felt  the  truth  of  it. 

At  the  conference  with  the  Greeks  in  New  York,  the 
Athenian  Metropolitan  spoke  of  the  impossibility  of 
joint  action  by  Eastern  Bishops  until  the  governments 
of  their  respective  countries  should  be  at  peace.  He 
made  evident  the  dependence  of  the  Eastern  Churches 
on  political  conditions  and  secular  authority.  It  gave 
me  a  new  view  of  Eastern  "  Erastianism  "  in  spite  of 
my  having  thought  much  of  the  position  of  the  Church 
in  Russia;  and  for  the  first  time  there  flashed  across  my 
mind  a  vivid  sense  of  the  need  of  political  independence 
of  the  central  and  controlling  power  in  the  Church.  I 
saw  there  was  much  to  be  said  for  the  temporal  sover- 
eignty of  the  Pope,  something  to  which  I  was  certain  I 
should  never  attach  importance,  even  if  I  ever  came 
to  admit  that  papal  claims  were  synonymous  with 
needs  of  the  Church. 

The  Papacy  stands  for  the  principles  not  only  of 
loyalty  to  the  Faith  and  Unity  of  the  Church,  but  also 
for  spiritual  independence.  This  I  had  seen  in  studying 
mediaeval  history,  and  had  always  been  in  sympathy 
with  St.  Anselm,  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  with  the 
Popes  in  the  investiture  struggles,  even  with  Gregory 
VII,  and  all  other  champions  of  moral  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal freedom  from  secular  aggression.  I  had  thought 
often  of  the  disadvantages  of  State  control  of  the 
Church  in  England,  and  doubted  whether  the  Anglican- 
ism could  survive  disestablishment  and  dispossession. 
This  made  less  impression,  however,  than  apparent  evi- 


THE  PAPACY  257 

dences  that  the  Eastern  Churches  are,  and  always  have 
been,  seriously  crippled  by  dependence  on  the  State, 
even  outside  the  Turkish  Empire.  In  their  history  was 
practical  vindication  of  certain  of  the  Roman  conten- 
tions. I  tried  to  be  on  guard  against  attaching  too 
much  importance  to  sudden  impressions  coming  at  a 
time  when  I  knew  I  was  in  various  ways  rapidly  Roman- 
izing; but  the  obiter  dicta  of  the  Metropolitan  of 
Athens  seemed  to  precipitate  knowledge  of  a  variety  of 
facts  in  the  form  of  conclusion  that,  as  between  Rome 
and  Constantinople,  it  was  Rome  who  had  championed 
ancient  principle  and  the  Church's  independence ;  and 
that  acts  of  General  Councils  which  reflect  Constanti- 
nopolitan  ambition  deserve  to  be  regarded  with  the  sus- 
picion they  always  encountered  in  the  West.  This  was 
a  great  blow  to  my  prejudices,  since  I  had  long  felt 
that,  however  weak  the  case  for  Cranmer  and  Henry 
VIII,  the  position  of  the  Eastern  Churches  was  strong, 
both  in  itself,  and  as  the  great  confutation  of  the  full 
papal  claims  as  distinguished  from  patriarchal  priority. 
The  conference  with  the  Greeks  deepened  my  feeling  of 
the  attractiveness  of  the  Easterns,  of  the  pain  of  sepa- 
ration from  them,  of  the  duty  of  unity:  but  it  left  also 
the  feeling  that  the  basis  of  unity  was  not  to  be  found 
in  the  vague  and  thoughtless  desire  of  certain  Angli- 
cans "  for  us  all  just  to  get  together  just  as  we  are" 
— to  quote  one  of  the  American  conferees — or,  as  I  was 
disposed  to  assume,  on  approximately  the  Eastern  basis 
of  harking  back  to  the  Seventh  General  Council  and  St. 
John  Damascene;  but  rather  on  the  basis  of  recogni- 
tion of  one  centre  of  visible  unity  in  the  Living  Church, 


258  THE  PAPACY 

on  the  principles  enunciated,  and  in  the  spirit  exhibited, 
by  Leo  XIII  in  his  Encyclicals,  Praeclara  addressed  to 
Easterns  in  1894,  and  Ad  Anglos  in  1895.  The  vari- 
ous utterances  of  this  worthy  bearer  of  a  great  name 
are  in  line  with  the  best  things  in  Leonine  tradition — 
lumen  de  coelo. 

The  sense  of  failures  in  the  Anglican  system,  which 
came  to  me  through  episcopal  experience,  predisposed 
me  to  reconsider  many  things ;  and  to  consider  favor- 
ably the  papal  system  under  which  some  of  these  fail- 
ures seemed  not  to  occur.  The  necessity  of  viewing 
things  from  unaccustomed  angles  gave  new,  and  more 
practical  estimates.  Much  against  my  will,  I  was 
driven  to  admit  that  a  Bishop  without  a  background  of 
authority,  compelling  loyalty  and  comprising  unity,  is 
less  than  Bishop  in  the  historic  sense;  and  that  epis- 
copacy for  discharge  of  its  normal  functions  needs  just 
such  a  background  as,  in  fact,  the  papal  system  pro- 
vides. This  led  to  reinvestigation  of  historical  prob- 
lems with  a  willingness  to  revise  old  judgments,  but  with 
no  disposition  not  fairly  to  face  the  facts.  The  result 
of  this  has  been  to  leave  the  conviction  that  the  papal 
claim  is  vindicated  by  Scripture  and  History ;  and  that, 
in  the  controverted  historical  points,  it  is  the  Roman 
Catholic  writers  who,  on  the  whole,  are  in  the  right,  and 
who  usually  display  preponderance,  not  only  of  logic, 
but  also  of  learning  and  common  sense. 


CHAPTER  XH 

NEW  DOGMAS:  CULT  OF  SAINTS 

To  non-Catholics,  especially  those  who  believe  in  the 
visible  Church,  the  Papacy  is  not  only  cause  and  chief 
example  of  schism,  but  also  a  great  cause  and  pro- 
tector of  heresy.  To  Easterns,  it  represents  the  spirit 
of  reckless  innovation,  to  scholarly  Anglicans,  innova- 
tion and  obsoleteness  alike:  to  both,  Latin  Christianity 
seems  self-condemned  by  having  broken  with  traditions 
of  government  embodied  in  patriarchates,  and  of  doc- 
trine as  expressed  in  patristic  writers.  "  Back  to  the 
Fathers  "  involves  "  Away  with  Popes  and  Scholastics." 
Rome  is  regarded  as  parvenu;  and  its  more  recent  doc- 
trinal pronouncements  must  be  viewed  askance.  This 
feeling  is  closely  connected  with  deference  to  the  su- 
preme authority  of  General  Councils,  and  belief  in  the 
impossibility  of  them  since  the  separation  of  East  and 
West.  The  characteristic  Tractarian  way  of  disposing 
of  Rome  and  showing  its  errors  is  simply  to  say,  "  It 
was  not  so  in  the  fourth  century."  This  is  analogous 
to  the  Protestant  test,  "  It  cannot  be  shown  in  Scrip- 
ture." 

This  method  with  its  characteristic  conclusions  has 
been  wholly  the  one  adopted  by  myself.  For  example, 
I  was  always  disposed  to  an  Eastern  view  of  the  FiUoque 
on  the  ground,  that  it  had  been  added  to  the  creed  by 
insufficient  authority,  and  was  not  well  chosen  as  a 


260  NEW  DOGMAS 

theological  term,  yet  never  felt  that  it  expressed  heresy 
by  imperilling  the  doctrine  of  the  monarchia  in  view  of 
the  explanation  by  Western  experts  that  it  was  used 
as  equivalent  to  per  Filium.  I  quite  saw  its  use  against 
Arians  in  Spain.  Similarly,  I  had  no  objection  to 
confession  or  the  requirement  of  it,  yet  felt  that  com- 
pulsory auricular  confession  was  ipso  facto  condemned 
by  dating  from  the  Council  of  Constance,  and  tran- 
scending the  requirements  of  the  Penitentiary  Pres- 
byters of  Constantinople.  Nor  had  I  objection  to  the 
disciplinary  requirement  of  clerical  celibacy,  in  spite 
of  Anglican  incentives  to  matrimony,  except  in  its 
Hildebrandine  form.  I  believed  in  requiring  it  of 
Bishops,  though  not  of  Priests,  since  thus  it  had  been  in 
the  fourth  century  and  is  in  the  East  now.*  Similarly 
of  the  cult  of  Saints.  Such  forms  as  could  claim  au- 
thority of  the  early  centuries  were  to  be  favored,  those 
of  later  date  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion.  So  of 
Seven  Sacraments.  I  believed  in  all  of  them,  though 


*  Clerical  celibacy  created  no  obstacle  in  my  way  toward 
the  Catholic  Church.  I  believed  in  its  desirability  for  many 
men,  in  spite  of  a  very  strong  personal  wish  for  marriage 
and  a  home  and  children  of  my  own.  Had  I  been  free  to 
do  so,  I  should  probably  have  married  when  I  was  younger; 
but  I  never  should  have  done  so  as  Bishop  of  Delaware. 
With  the  greatest  admiration  for  the  character  and  influence 
of  good  clerical  homes,  I  never  felt  that  married  clergy  could, 
on  the  whole,  be  as  useful  as  unmarried,  to  say  nothing  of 
principles  involved;  and  this  tentative  opinion  has  become 
conviction  since  I  have  come  to  know  something  of  Catholic 
priests.  On  the  subject  of  celibacy,  there  is  nothing  to  be 
added  to,  or  subtracted  from,  the  words  of  Our  Lord  and 
St.  Paul. 


IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION  261 

tardily  in  Extreme  Unction;  but  objected  to  "  Seven  " 
as  being  a  bit  of  definiteness  dating  only  from  the 
twelfth  century,  preferring  no  specific  reference  to  num- 
ber, or  such  indefinite  extension  as  in  the  "  thirty  "  of 
Adam  of  St.  Victor.  Anything  merely  mediaeval  was  to 
be  rejected  as  overdefinite,  if  it  went  beyond  patristic 
precedent  perpetuated  in  the  East.  One  chief  objec- 
tion to  "  Rome  "  was  its  New  Dogmas,  especially  the 
Dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 

1.  In  regard  to  the  Immaculate  Conception  itself,  I 
believed  that  it  should  be  recognized  and  propagated  as 
pious  opinion,  but  felt  its  promulgation  as  de  fide  inde- 
fensible, since  it  had  not  been  held  by  St.  Augustine — 
in  regard  to  whom  I  was  mistaken — or  by  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  My  sensitiveness  in  regard  to  the  latter  was 
quite  inconsistent,  for,  in  spite  of  habitually  holding 
him  up  as  supreme  example  of  consecrated  intellect,  I 
was  disposed  to  place  him  with  Peter  Lombard  on  a  sort 
of  Index  of  overdefinite  Saints  and  Doctors  to  be  ac- 
cepted cum  grano  sails  maxima.  I  could  not  have  hesi- 
tated to  accept  this,  or  any  other  dogma,  promulgated 
by  authority  of  the  universal  episcopate  as  I  conceived 
it ;  but  felt  that  it  was  not  sufficient  to  have  the  Pope 
alone  speak  in  behalf  of  the  subservient  Latin  episco- 
pate. Novel  assumptions  in  regard  to  doctrine  seemed 
to  follow  from  a  false  conception  of  the  Church.  These 
objections  fell  to  the  ground  the  moment  of  recognizing 
the  principle  of  primacy  as  inherent  in  the  Church,  and 
of  communion  with  the  Apostolic  See  as  the  one  prac- 
tical test  of  what  constitutes  the  Catholic  Episcopate. 
Acquiescence  in  this  dogma  follows  from  recognition  of 


262     IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION 

these  facts,  cordial  conviction  of  its  importance  from 
seeing  its  congruity  with  genuine  belief  in  the  Incar- 
nation. 

"  To  many  '  Immaculate  Conception  '  has  seemed  to  imply 
that  the  Blessed  Virgin  did  not  die  in  Adam,  that  she  did  not 
come  under  the  penalty  of  the  fall,  that  she  was  not  re- 
deemed, that  she  was  conceived  in  some  way  inconsistent 
with  the  verse  of  the  Miserere  psalm.  .  .  .  We  hold 
nothing  of  this  kind ;  we  consider  that  in  Adam  she  died,  as 
others ;  that  she  was  included,  together  with  the  whole  race, 
in  Adam's  sentence;  that  she  incurred  his  debt,  as  we  do; 
but  that,  for  the  sake  of  Him  Who  was  to  redeem  her  and 
us  upon  the  Cross,  to  her  the  debt  was  remitted  by  anticipa- 
tion, on  her  the  sentence  was  not  carried  out,  except  indeed 
as  regards  her  natural  death,  for  she  died  when  her  time 
came,  as  others.  All  this  we  teach,  but  we  deny  that  she 
had  original  sin;  for  by  original  sin  we  mean  something 
negative,  viz.  this  only,  the  deprivation  of  that  supernatural 
unmerited  grace  which  Adam  and  Eve  had  on  their  first 
formation, — deprivation  and  the  consequences  of  depriva- 
tion. Mary  could  not  merit,  any  more  than  they,  the  resto- 
ration of  that  grace ;  but  it  was  restored  to  her  by  God's  free 
bounty,  from  the  very  first  moment  of  her  existence,  and 
thereby,  in  fact,  she  never  came  under  the  original  curse, 
which  consisted  in  the  loss  of  it.  And  she  had  this  special 
privilege,  in  order  to  fit  her  to  become  the  Mother  of  her 
and  our  Redeemer,  to  fit  her  mentally,  spiritually  for  it; 
so  that,  by  the  aid  of  the  first  grace,  she  might  so  grow  in 
grace,  that,  when  the  Angel  came  and  her  Lord  was  at 
hand,  she  might  be  '  full  of  grace,'  prepared,  as  far  as  a 
creature  could  be  prepared,  to  receive  Him  into  her 
bosom."  * 

•Newman:  Difficulties  of  Anglicans,  Letter  to  Pusey, 
Section  3. 


IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION  263 

The  dogma  is  to  be  accepted,  not  only  in  submission 
to  the  authority  of  the  Church,  but  pre-eminently  for 
its  safeguarding  the  truth  of  the  uniqueness  of  Our 
Lady's  life.  None  who  believes  that  her  Son  was  God, 
and  hence  can  marvel  at  her  place  in  the  scheme  of 
human  redemption,  can  fail  to  see  that  her  birth,  her 
death,  and  her  entrance  into  Heaven,  must  be  thought 
of  as  unique  events. 

Consideration  of  what  is  involved  in  accepting  new- 
definitions  in  matters  of  faith  led  me  to  think  more  of 
the  content  of  belief  in  the  Living  Church  on  which  I 
was  always  insisting  in  sermons  and  charges.  The 
Living  Church,  as  corollary  on  belief  in  the  Living 
Lord,  I  accepted ;  but  failed  to  appreciate  in  how  many 
ways  the  Church  lives,  and  never  took  in  definitely  that 
Living  Church  involves  Living  Voice.  My  own  method 
of  applying  the  "  appeal  to  antiquity,"  which  I  re- 
garded as  of  the  genius  of  Anglicanism,  was  a  "  hark- 
ing back  to  the  past  ages  and  irrevocable  conditions  on 
the  theory  that  we  can  let  some  bygones  be  bygones,  if  we 
take  other  bygones  for  beginnings,"  which  I  condemned 
in  other  people.  Although  I  was  ready  to  declare  that 
"  American  religion  of  the  future  cannot  be  confined 
either  in  Greek  cerements  of  the  sixth  century,  or  in 
Italian  trammels  and  trappings  of  the  thirteenth,  or  in 
English,  Scottish,  or  German  moulds  of  the  sixteenth, 
or  in  nineteenth  century  ruts,  even  though  they  were 
formed  in  America,"  I  assumed  something  of  the  sort  all 
the  time.* 

Any  retrospective  theory  of  the  Church  is  wrong  as 

•  Catholic  and  Protestant,  pp.  88,  116. 


264  IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION 

involving  denial  that  the  Church,  and  hence  its  Lord,  is 
really  Living.  This  is  true  of  any  appeal  to  Scrip- 
ture, tradition,  or  history,  which  is  not  subordinate  to, 
and  merely  corroborative  of  experience  of  the  Lord 
now  working  with  us  and  confirming  His  word  by  signs. 
The  outstanding  feature  of  Catholicism  is  its  insistence 
on  the  present.  I  was  groping  after  this  when  I  said 
in  a  Charge  in  1916:  "The  chief  characteristic  of  the 
life  of  the  Church  is  the  vivid  sense  of  Our  Lord's  near 
presence  and  constant  activity,  a  vivid  sense  of  the  un- 
seen world  and  of  its  throngs  of  obedient  hosts.  Those 
whose  '  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God  '  are  companions  of 
*  angels  and  archangels  and  all  the  company  of  Heaven  ' 
in  God's  worship  and  God's  service.  The  Good  Shep- 
herd is  in  the  midst  of  His  flock,  knowing  and  known. 
'  The  love  of  Jesus,  what  it  is,  none  but  His  loved  ones 
know.'  Especially  are  they  conscious  of  this  as  the 
Good  Shepherd  feeds  His  flock  mystically  with  *  the 
true  Bread  which  comes  down  from  Heaven  '  in  the  Holy 
Eucharist."  Faith  has  to  do  with  present  spiritual  re- 
lations ;  and  what  was  true  in  the  past  only  concerns  us 
because  of  its  bearing  on  what  is  true  now.  The  falsity 
of  non-Catholicism  in  its  various  forms  is  shown  by 
any  reference  for  standards  to  a  remote  and  obscure 
past,  in  Protestantism,  by  its  obvious  gravitation  to- 
ward Old  Testament  levels,  and  in  pseudo-Catholicism, 
by  tendencies  to  antiquarian  petrification.  Where  there 
is  vivid  sense  of  present  spiritual  realities,  there  is  vivid 
Catholic  instinct,  no  matter  by  what  name  it  calls  itself. 
But  any  rallying-cry  of  "  Back  to  "  is  dangerous,  even 
of  "  Back  to  Christ,"  for  this  is  meaningless  unless  it  is 


TRANSUBSTANTIATION  265 

synonymous  with  "  Up  to,  and  down  before,  Christ." 
New  dogmatic  pronouncements  must  be  related  not  only 
to  the  mode  of  utterance  provided  for  the  Church,  but 
also  to  the  whole  conception  of  the  Church's  constant 
vitality. 

2.  The  sort  of  objection  above  indicated  is  the  only 
sort  felt  by  many  High  Anglicans  to  Transubstantia- 
tion.  Believing  in  the  Real  Presence,  and  that  denial  of 
this  is  pernicious  error,  they  reject  Transubstantiation 
in  the  first  place,  because  Anglican  clergy  are  ex  officio 
bound  to  do  so ;  and,  in  the  second,  because  Anglican 
divines  maintain  that  the  scholastic  doctrine  attempts 
to  explain  the  inexplicable;  gives  details  as  to  mode 
where  all  that  matters  is  the  fact ;  and  involves  obsolete 
and  misleading  metaphysics,  which  plunge  into  dangers 
of  "  Eucharistic  Nihilianism."  Chalcedonian  prejudice 
is  easily  alarmed  at  suggestion  of  sacramental  Euty- 
chians.  Hence,  in  company  with  many,  I  rejected 
Transubstantiation  only  on  the  ground  that  its  meta- 
physics, in  strict  technicality,  involved  denial  of  "  the 
outward  part  or  sign  "  in  such  wise  as  to  "  overthrow 
the  nature  of  a  Sacrament."  From  reading  I  knew 
that  most,  if  not  all,  Roman  theologians  so  taught  about 
the  "  accidents  "  as  to  safeguard  the  doctrine,  and  be- 
lieved that  the  technical  interpretation  which  Anglicans 
rejected  was  one  that  they  would  reject  too.  I  saw 
also  that  High  Church  Anglicans,  though  committed  to 
rejection  of  the  doctrine,  were  put  to  some  difficulty  to 
make  out  a  convincing  case  and  were  somewhat  artificial 
in  their  official  polemic  zeal. 

It  is  some  years  since  I  came  to  feel  that  Transub- 


266  TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

stantiation  is  nothing  but  unqualified  assertion  of  the 
Real  Presence;  and  that  this  is  the  ground  of  objec- 
tion to  it  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten.  Nor  could  I  become 
excited  over  dangers  apparently  not  felt  by  theologians 
and  pastors  who  had  most  practical  experience  of  its 
effects.  Devout  congregations  at  Mass  did  not  seem 
like  Eucharistic  Nihilists ;  simply  believers  of  the  sort 
I  had  always  best  known,  only  better  able  to  put  their 
faith  into  practice,  and  in  possession  of  a  "  joy  and 
peace  in  believing "  not  possible  for  the  equally  be- 
lieving and  devout  Anglicans,  who  were  quite  regular 
at  "  early  service."  At  most,  objection  to  Transub- 
stantiation  was  objection  to  a  term  as  not  best  chosen. 
Criticism  of  its  metaphysics  was  precisely  like  that 
to  which  ojjioovGiov  was  subjected.  Experts  assert 
that  fourth  century  metaphysics  are  out  of  date;  that 
its  terms  are  susceptible  of  misleading  suggestions ;  that 
modern  metaphysics  could  provide  better  terms  for  the 
Creed.  Yet  this  occasioned  no  difficulty.  St.  Athana- 
sius,  not  at  all  a  stickler  for  words,  would  have  accepted 
any  effective  substitute  for  the  Nicene  watchword,  yet 
defended  it  as  used  in  the  Creed  as  an  unequivocal  asser- 
tion of  the  co-equal  Divinity  of  God  the  Son.  That  and 
that  alone  was  what  it  stood  for;  and  that  is  what  it 
stands  for  in  the  Creed  now.  Hence  it  may  be  used  and 
valued,  no  matter  what  one  thinks,  or  whether  one 
thinks  anything  at  all,  of  the  comparative  excellence  of 
fourth  century  metaphysics.  Human  philosophy  and 
its  fashions  count  for  nothing  in  comparison  with  the 
expression  of  Divine  truth.  Old-fashioned  meta- 
physics, of  the  fourth  or  any  other  century,  are  good 


TRANSUBSTANTIATION  267 

enough  for  the  purpose,  if  they  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
the  truth  of  revelation  they  are  used  to  express.  So  of 
BforoHO?.  The  term  has  been,  and  is,  criticized  as 
not  the  best:  but  it  cannot  be  objected  to  by  any  who 
recognize  its  essential  meaning,  of  asserting  the  unique 
eminence  of  the  Virgin  Mother  in  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  those  who  believe  in  the  Deity  of  her  Son. 

So  of  Transubstantiation.  Its  mediaeval  meta- 
physics may  have  been  for  some  superseded  by  modern 
substitutes,  as  these  in  time  will  doubtless  be  by  others : 
yet  these  changes  in  thought  and  language  do  not  affect 
the  miracle  of  the  Mass.  It  is  this  which  the  scholastic 
term  asserts,  as  is  well  understood  both  by  those  who 
believe,  and  by  the  majority  of  those  who  reject  it. 
The  meaning  of  the  term  is  simply  that  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the  Eucharist  become  by  consecration  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ.  Those  who  believe  this  must  hail 
the  term,  as  well  as  the  doctrine,  for  its  past  as  well 
as  present  influence;  those  who  do  not  believe  it,  must 
disparage  the  term  because  they  hate  the  thing  implied. 
In  this  matter  of  plain  choice  there  is  no  place  for 
overfastidiousness  in  linguistic  precision,  no  real  use 
between  light  and  darkness  for  the  obscurities  pleasing 
to  timid  souls,  no  ground  for  satisfaction  when  "  Eleusis 
hints  but  does  not  speak."  The  significance  of  Tran- 
substantiation is  simply  Real  Presence  in  the  full  sig- 
nificance conveyed  by  both  words.  Those  who  believe 
the  truth  cannot  quibble  over  the  word. 

3.  In  regard  to  Transubstantiation,  the  chief  diffi- 
culty of  many  Anglicans  is  to  be  satisfied  that  there  is 
sufficient  ground  for  its  repudiation  in  their  Article 


268  TRANSUBSTANTIATION 

XXVIII.  They  regret  that  on  this  point  there  should 
be  difference  between  the  English  Church  and  the 
Roman  and  have  an  uneasy  suspicion  that  Rome  may 
not  be  so  far  wrong  after  all.  Not  so  in  regard  to 
the  administration  of  Communion  in  one  kind.  The 
withholding  of  the  Chalice  from  the  laity  seems  to  be 
Rome's  most  obvious  fault,  direct  disobedience  to  a 
Divine  command.  "  Drink  ye  all  of  this  "  is  explicit. 
Of  all  "  Roman  difficulties  "  this  ought  to  be  to  persons 
with  presuppositions  such  as  mine  the  most  insuperable. 
It  used  to  seem  so.  Although  the  doctrine  of  con- 
comitance could  be  accepted,  to  administer  in  one  kind 
only  seemed  to  defy  Our  Lord's  direction  at  the  Insti- 
tution, as  interpreted  by  all  liturgical  tradition.  I  have 
recently  tried  to  lash  myself  into  a  state  of  consistent 
protest ;  and  the  attempt  has  failed.  This  is  due  partly 
to  dawning  recognition  of  the  rightful  authority  of,  and 
in,  the  Church,  with  a  consequent  cessation  of  assump- 
tion that  all  things  must  be  settled  at  the  tribunal  of 
private  judgment:  more,  I  think,  to  experience  in  dioce- 
san work  of  the  apparently  insuperable  difficulties  in 
many  places  of  reverent  administration.  Knowledge  of 
these,  of  the  simplification  of  various  practical  problems 
by  administration  under  the  species  of  bread  only,  gave 
a  sense  of  what  lies  behind  the  modern  rule  of  discipline. 
Moreover,  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  Calixtines, 
either  Bohemian  Hussites  or  their  later  successors,  have 
not  been  actuated  by  motives  of  special  reverence  for 
Our  Lord's  Blood  and  longing  for  greater  mystical  bless- 
ings ;  but  by  opposition  to  the  Mass  as  mystery  and 
by  desire  to  combat  clerical  authority  and  privilege, 


PURGATORY  269 

"  the  priesthood  of  the  laity  "  often  being  alleged  as 
virtual  assertion  of  the  non-priesthood  of  the  clergy. 
Those  who  are  supremely  devoted  to  Our  Lord  as  re- 
vealed through  the  Eucharist,  do  not  quarrel  with  the 
decree  of  Constance.  What  was  once  a  great  "  diffi- 
culty "  for  me  has  for  some  time  ceased  to  be  trouble- 
some. 

4.  There  was  no  stumbling-block  in  the  doctrine  of 
Purgatory.  The  truth  as  expressed  in  the  Tridentine 
definition,  "  There  is  a  Purgatory ;  and  souls  detained 
therein  are  helped  by  the  suffrages  of  the  faithful,  but 
principally  by  the  acceptable  Sacrifice  of  the  Altar," 
I  never  questioned.  To  lurid  and  graphic  details  of 
description,  derived  from  visions  of  Gregory  the  Great 
and  sundry  ascetics,  I  paid  no  heed :  the  essential  thing 
was  the  fact  and  principle  enunciated  by  the  Council 
of  Trent,  Augustinian  in  its  simplicity,  and  merely  ex- 
pressing what  was  implied  in  the  teaching  of  those  to 
whom  I  habitually  deferred.  The  simple  recognition  of 
a  process  of  purification  and  growth  for  imperfect  souls 
after  death  accords  with  what  I  have  believed  and 
taught  ever  since  I  have  thought  of  such  things.  I  fre- 
quently quoted  from  the  Dream  of  Gerontius,  especially 
on  Good  Friday  in  preaching  at  the  Three  Hours  on 
the  Word  to  the  penitent  thief. 

"  There  is  a  pleading  in  His  pensive  eyes 
Will  pierce  thee  to  the  quick  and  trouble  thee. 
Andthou  wilt  hate  and  loathe  thyself;  for,  though 
Now  sinless,  thou  wilt  feel  that  thou  hast  sinned, 
As  never  thou  didst  feel ;  and  wilt  desire 


270  INDULGENCES 

To  slink  away  and  hide  thee  from  His  sight. 
And  yet  wilt  thou  have  longing  aye  to  dwell 
Within  the  beauty  of  His  countenance. 
And  these  two  pains,  so  counter  and  so  keen, — 
The  longing  for  Him,  when  thou  seest  Him  not, 
The  shame  of  self  at  thought  of  seeing  Him, — 
Will  be  thy  veriest,  sharpest  purgatory." 

"  The  eager  spirit  has  darted  from  my  hold, 
And,  with  the  intemperate  energy  of  love, 
Flies  to  the  dear  feet  of  Emmanuel, 
But,  ere  it  reach  them,  the  keen  sanctity, 
Which  with  its  effluence,  like  a  glory,  clothes 
And  circles  round  the  Crucified,  has  seized 
And  scorched,  and  shrivelled  it ;  and  now  it  lies 
Passive  and  still  before  the  awful  Throne. 
O  happy,  suffering  soul,  for  it  is  safe, 
Consumed,  yet  quickened,  by  the  glance  of  God."  * 

5.  Yet  there  ought  to  be  difficulty  in  Indulgences. 
Bishop  Creighton  once  said,  "  I  am  reduced  almost  to 

*  I  felt  strongly  on  the  subject  of  Prayers  for  the  Dead, 
and  that  the  Anglican  Burial  Office  was  inadequate  to  express 
the  full  Christian  hope.  The  first  time  that  I  was  deeply  im- 
pressed with  its  unsatisfactoriness  was  at  the  funeral  of  the 
Reverend  Doctor  Charles  Harris  Hayes  in  Newark  in  1910. 
All  that  the  Church  provided  was  used;  but  the  effect  as  some 
one  afterward  commented  was  simply  that  of  "unmitigated 
gloom."  I  had  the  same  feeling  at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev- 
erend Doctor  J.  H.  Eccleston  in  Baltimore.  For  years  I  never 
used  the  Burial  Office  without  feeling  that  it  was  lamentably 
lacking.  In  1914  I  delivered  a  Charge  to  the  Delaware  Clergy, 
one  section  of  which  dealt  with  Prayers  for  the  Dead.  This 
was  separately  published,  and  translated  into  Japanese  by  a 
former  pupil,  the  Reverend  Y.  Inagaki. 


CULT  OF  SAINTS  271 

idiocy  by  attempting  to  understand  the  mediaeval  doc- 
trine about  Indulgences.  Let  me  commend  it  to  you 
when  you  feel  in  a  lazy  mood;  it  will  turn  your  hair 
gray  if  anything  will."  I  have  never  been  reduced  to 
idiocy  by  this  particular  process,  nor  has  my  hair  been 
affected  by  it.  Not  that  I  wholly  understand  Indul- 
gences, or  would  undertake  to  explain  them.  I  know 
no  more  of  them  now  than  I  did  twenty  years  ago,  and 
am  as  puzzled  by  certain  aspects  of  them  as  I  ever  was. 
Yet  I  cannot  keep  myself  out  of  the  Church  simply 
because  of  this  failure  to  understand.  In  the  actual  life 
of  Catholics  little  stress  seems  to  be  laid  on  them:  they 
are  simply  incidental  consequences  of  habits  of  devo- 
tion. I  accept  them  because  the  Church  sanctions  and 
provides  them,  assuming  that  there  must  be  good 
reason,  whether  I  fathom  it  or  not.  This  acquiescence 
is,  I  think,  simply  an  act  of  faith.  I  am  glad  that  it 
should  be.  In  many  other  things,  I  have  wished  to 
understand  the  why  and  wherefore  of  everything,  ac- 
cepting the  Church's  judgment  when  it  had  the  sanc- 
tion of  my  own !  In  this  matter,  I  do  not  see  why,  nor 
care  to.  Roma  locuta  est. 

6.  The  charge  of  "  idolatry "  commonly  directed 
against  Catholicism  is  made  to  apply  to  "  the  idol  of 
the  Mass,"  but  more  often  to  the  cult  of  the  Saints, 
chiefly  to  fully  developed  "  Mariolatry."  In  my  own 
mind,  this  objection  took  the  form  of  belief  that  the 
popular  cult  of  local  Saints  in  some  parts  of  the  world 
was  merely  a  disguised  form  of  pagan  polytheism ;  and 
that  the  devotion  paid  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  even  when 
right  in  motive  and  unexceptionable  in  form,  was  in 


272  CULT  OF  SAINTS 

actual  practice  given  a  disproportionate  importance 
and  tended  to  obscure  the  worship  of  Our  Lord.  I 
believe  that  among  ignorant  people  in  some  places  both 
these  things  are  true ;  yet  I  cannot  find  a  single  instance 
of  authoritative  sanction  for  them,  nor  any  official 
teaching  on  the  honor  due  to  the  Saints,  which  does 
not  guard  against  possible  abuses  and  carefully  dis- 
tinguish between  this  and  the  adoration  due  to  God  only. 
"  Their  prayers  are  invoked,  not  they."  If  Catholics 
lapse  into  an  idolatrous,  or  semi-idolatrous,  attitude 
toward  the  Blessed  Virgin  or  any  of  the  Saints,  it  is  in 
spite  of  warnings  which  all  have  received.  If  this  devo- 
tion becomes  worship,  it  is  idolatry ;  if  it  crowds  out 
worship  of  God,  it  is  misused:  all  failures  to  give  God 
His  due  first  place  are  breaches  of  the  First  Command- 
ment. All  Catholic  catechisms,  Eastern  as  well  as 
Western,  emphasize  this.  That  there  have  been,  and 
are,  failures  to  heed  these  warnings  is  indisputable,  as 
is  attested  by  several  great  saints :  but  the  Church  can- 
not be  held  responsible  for  ignorance  and  disobedience 
which  its  authorized  teaching  seeks  to  prevent.  No 
one  with  instincts  of  reverence  for  the  heroes  of  the 
faith,  or  any  sense  of  the  Christian  consciousness  of  the 
unseen  world,  can  find  difficulty  in  the  teaching  of  the 
Council  of  Trent:  but  for  many  difficulty  is  created  by 
popular  abuses  of  which  they  have  crudely  exaggerated 
notions. 

There  can  be  only  high  praise  for  the  motive  of  much 
objection  of  this  sort,  since  it  springs  from  loyalty  to 
Our  Lord  and  a  passionate  jealousy  for  His  rightful 
prerogatives.  That  expresses  the  fundamental  Chris- 


CULT  OF  SAINTS  273 

tian  instinct  of  which  non-Catholic  Evangelicals  possess 
no  monopoly.  One  great  example  of  its  effective  ex- 
pression is  to  be  found  in  the  cult  of  the  Sacred  Heart, 
the  sense  of  Our  Lord's  burning  love  for  human  souls, 
evoking  from  them  most  passionate  devotion.  When 
from  this  motive  there  is  suspicion  of  possible  encroach- 
ment on  the  part  of  Saints,  it  is  enough  to  point  to  the 
distinction  between  veneration  and  worship ;  and  that  it 
is  loyalty  to  Our  Lord  which  involves  veneration  for  all 
nearest  to  Him.  In  many  instances,  however,  distrust 
of  the  Saints  is  due  to  coldness  of  heart,  and  measures 
incapacity  for  genuine  love  of  God. 

Actual  experience  of  Catholic  customs  will  lessen,  or 
remove,  this  difficulty  in  at  least  three  ways.  In  the 
first  place,  to  be  understood  the  devotions  paid  to 
Saints  must  be  viewed  in  their  context  of  continuous 
worship  of  God  through  Our  Lord.  Their  actual  place, 
determined  by  the  great  fixed  points  of  Catholic  life 
and  worship,  is  distinctly  subordinate.  This  would  be 
illustrated  by  the  two  examples  of  their  commonest 
public  use.  After  Mass,  the  great  habitual  act  of  wor- 
ship of  Our  Lord  Himself,  lasting  half  an  hour  or 
longer,  about  three  minutes  are  devoted  to  veneration  of 
Our  Lady  in  the  Ave  Maria  and  Salve  Regina  and  peti- 
tion for  her  intercession  and  that  of  other  great  Saints. 
To  Catholics  there  is  no  parity  whatever  between  the 
great  Sacramental  Sacrifice  and  the  short  office  which 
follows  its  conclusion.  Or  in  the  evenings,  the  Rosary 
is  publicly  recited,  a  series  of  meditations  on  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Incarnation,  to  a  sort  of  running  accom- 
paniment of  the  Angelic  Salutation  and  invocation  of 


274  CULT  OF  SAINTS 

the  Blessed  Virgin,  as  it  were  basing  all  thought  of  the 
mysteries  on  the  Incarnation  itself  practically  realized 
in  the  Communion  of  Saints.  But  this  is  only  prelude 
to  the  special  devotion  for  which  a  congregation  has 
assembled,  the  adoration  of  Our  Lord  in  the  service  of 
Benediction.  Nor  can  there  seem  to  be  disproportion 
in  a  blaze  of  tapers  about  a  saint's  image  on  some 
festival  to  those  who  know  what  in  the  church  the 
High  Altar  signifies,  and  that  the  one  really  important 
light  is  that  which  indicates  the  Tabernacle.  The 
Saints  always  and  everywhere  are  nothing  but  Our 
Lord's  retinue,  and,  even  in  case  of  the  greatest,  derive 
all  their  importance  from  Him. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  helpful  to  be  reminded  that 
those  chiefly  responsible  for  devotion  to  the  Saints  have 
been  at  greatest  pains  to  safeguard  them  from  abuse. 
It  is,  of  course,  the  whole  series  of  devotions  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin  which  would  be  most  likely  to  pass  the  line 
which  separates  veneration  from  worship.  The  careful 
relation  of  these  to  the  worship  due  to  Our  Lord  alone 
may  be  illustrated  by  reference  to  two  names,  specially 
identified  in  the  minds  of  many  with  a  tendency  to  make 
an  idol  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  St.  Alphonsus  Liguori 
and  Father  Faber  of  the  Oratory.  One  of  the  most  fre- 
quently cited  examples  of  gross  "  Mariolatry "  is 
Liguori's  Glories  of  Mary.  Certainly  it  would  seem 
that  nothing  could  go  beyond  this  in  heaping  titles  of 
dignity  and  in  assertions  of  humble  dependence.  If 
there  is  danger  that  excess  of  devotion  to  the  Blessed 
Virgin  should  ever  obscure  the  sense  of  Our  Lord  as 
the  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  St.  Alphonsus 


CULT  OF  SAINTS  275 

would  seem  to  incur  it.  Yet  this  is  what  St.  Alphonsus 
says :  "  In  the  Catholic  Church  are  found  true  love  of 
God  and  of  one's  neighbor.  The  love  of  Jesus  Christ 
ought  really  to  be  the  chief  and  almost  only  devotion 
of  a  Catholic.  To  advance  towards  perfection,  prac- 
tice yourself  above  all  things,  in  Divine  love.  If  you 
want  to  go  to  Heaven,  love  God  with  all  your  heart."  * 
Similarly  Faber,  the  English  convert  chiefly  identified 
with  suspected  popular  devotions,  whose  constant  refer- 
ences to  "  Dearest  Mamma  "  palled  upon  his  friends,  as 
the  author  of  some  of  the  best-known  hymns  in  honor 
of  the  Virgin,  and  as  one  whose  lips  constantly  uttered 
her  name,  is  often  credited  with  giving  special  impetus 
to  the  "  Mariolatrous  "  cult.  Yet  the  substance  of 
what  he  expresses  would  be  indicated  by  such  verses  as 
these. 

"  How  close  to  God,  how  full  of  God, 

Dear  Mother,  must  thou  be! 
For  still  the  more  we  know  of  God, 
The  more  we  think  of  thee. 

"  This  is  thy  gift — oh,  give  it  us ! — 

To  make  God  better  known 
Ah  Mother!  make  Him  in  our  hearts 
More  grand  and  more  alone." 

The  extravagance  of  his  praises  of  Our  Lady  in  one 
set  of  hymns  can  only  be  understood  by  the  humility 
of  his  prayers  to  Our  Lord  in  another.  What  is  true 
of  these  rather  extreme  "  clients  of  Mary  "  is  true  in 

•  Liguori :  Truth  of  the  Frith,  part  iii,  chapter  I. 


276  CULT  OF  SAINTS 

more  marked  degree  of  other  teachers.  Study  of  the 
development  of  Marian  devotions  will  make  it  clear 
that,  although  Christian  love  must  always  bow  before 
her  as  highest  of  creatures,  there  is  no  failure  to  recog- 
nize the  gulf  that  separates  even  the  highest  of  crea- 
tures from  the  Creator. 

In  the  third  place,  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  be- 
tween modes  of  expression  and  matter  expressed.  It 
touches  no  matter  of  principle  that  the  language  of 
devotion  should  be  subject  to  criticism  from  the  stand- 
point of  taste.  Much  devotional  language,  not  only 
panegyric  and  invocation  of  saints  but  sometimes  also 
language  used  in  prayer  to  God,  is  in  form  offensive  to 
many  people.  I  have  seen  much  of  it  that  I  could  not 
use,  which  seemed  tawdry,  cheap,  unreal.  With  that 
conceit  which  is  prone  to  hold  its  own  canons  of  taste 
as  standards  for  other  people,  I  am  disposed  to  assume 
that  it  would  appear  in  the  same  way  to  all  people  of 
discernment.  Yet  there  is,  and  ought  to  be,  no  one 
standard  in  matters  of  this  sort.  In  the  Catholic 
Church,  as  in  the  world,  are  all  sorts  of  people,  who 
must  be  provided  for  in  ways  best  suited  to  their  re- 
spective needs.  It  is  not  necessary  to  pass  judgment 
on  differences  in  method.  The  practical  point  is  that 
the  Catholic  Church  with  maternal  versatility  provides 
what  is  useful  for  all  her  children;  and  none  is  bound 
to  make  use  of  forms  of  personal  devotion  other  than 
those  which  commend  themselves  to  individual  prefer- 
ence. The  general  devotions  used  in  public,  and  prac- 
tically obligatory,  are  of  a  sort  suitable  for  everybody, 
constituting  a  simple  and  stable  foundation  for 


CULT  OF  SAINTS  277 

porate  worship  on  which  each  may  erect  such  a  super* 
structure  of  personal  devotion  as  he  pleases.  More- 
over, the  language  of  penitent  souls  is  not  the  proper 
object  for  the  exercise  of  critical  faculties. 

It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  or  too  strongly  em- 
phasized, that  devotion  to  the  Saints  is  a  consequence 
of,  and  in  proportion  to,  devotion  to  Our  Lord.  Only 
believers  in  the  Incarnation  can  have  any  sense  of  the 
unique  privileges  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  of  St. 
Joseph ;  and  having  this,  must  of  necessity  render  their 
homage.  To  withhold  it  is  to  fail  in  due  honor  to  Our 
Lord.  No  one  who  believes  in  Him  as  very  God  of 
very  God,  can  fail  to  recognize  the  awful  sanctity  at- 
taching to  her  who  was  His  Virgin  Mother,  to  him  who 
guarded  His  childhood,  and  to  all  those  admitted  to  His 
intimacy.  The  measure  of  sainthood  is  the  degree  of 
nearness  to  Him,  and  homage  to  those  near  Him  is  mere 
reflection  of  adoration  of  Himself.  Dishonor  to  them, 
neglect  of  them,  shows  indifference  to  their  and  our 
Divine  Lord. 

Nor  have  we  due  sense  of  the  solidarity  of  salvation, 
the  corporate  character  of  the  method  of  redemption, 
if  we  fail  to  appreciate  how  the  "  cloud  of  witnesses  " 
may  help  us.  Only  through  the  practice  of  invocation 
does  the  Communion  of  Saints  come  to  have  practical 
meaning  and  value.  Yet  in  this  is  a  great  source  of 
inspiration.  There  is  magnificence  in  the  thrilling 
thought  that  underlies  the  Litany  of  the  Saints  and 
the  commemorations  in  the  Mass,  not  only  for  poetical 
and  historical  souls,  who  have  a  special  joy  of  their 
own,  but  more  for  lonely,  humble,  and  troubled  souls 


278  CULT  OF  SAINTS 

who  alone  best  know  its  value.  In  general  is  it  true  in 
all  matters  of  this  sort,  that  difficulties  which  obsess 
non-Catholic  imaginations  vanish  on  contact  with  Cath- 
olic practice. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

JESUIT    ETHICS 

THE  chief  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  favorable 
regard  for  Roman  Catholicism  for  many  people  is  not 
doctrinal  but  practical,  supposed  tampering  not  with 
Faith  but  with  Morals.  It  is  not  that  there  are  many 
impatient  rigorists,  prone  to  assume  that  they  alone 
are  champions  of  the  Church's  sanctity ;  it  is  not  that 
reasonable  people  fail  to  recognize  that  human  frailty 
is  always  interfering  with  Christianity's  full  effects, 
that  sins  are  always  to  be  discovered  in  the  Church,  that 
there  have  been,  and  always  will  be,  bad  priests,  bad 
bishops,  bad  popes,  as  well  as  bad  laymen :  but  there  is 
suspicion  that  in  the  Roman  Catholic  system  is  some- 
thing that  tends  along  certain  lines  to  lower  moral 
standards,  that  the  Church  to  further  selfish  ends  sanc- 
tions reprehensible  action;  and  the  conscience  of  men 
is  outraged  by  the  thought  that  what  purports  to  rep- 
resent Divine  justice  should  from  motives  of  expediency 
palliate  vice.  The  objection  is  felt  from  the  stand- 
point of  commonplace  morality,  rather  than  that  of 
sanctity,  and  is  very  widespread.  Many  facts  are  cited 
to  substantiate  it,  and  the  cautious  assume  that,  where 
there  is  so  much  smoke,  there  must  be  some  fire.  They 
are  not  as  ready  as  their  fathers  to  believe  evil;  but 
they  wish  not  to  have  plausible  theories  blind  them  to 
the  significance  of  damning  facts.  What,  they  ask,  of 
possible  dangers  from  the  Inquisition,  of  clerical  extor- 
279 


280  JESUIT  ETHICS 

tions,  of  wickedness  in  high  places  in  times  past,  of  the 
general  suspicion  of  intrigue  in  the  Curia,  of  the  cover- 
ing up  of  scandals,  of  the  sanction  of  mental  reserva- 
tion so  that  it  is  impossible  to  know  whether  the  word 
of  Catholics  can  be  trusted?  It  is  felt  that  what  is 
at  the  bottom  of  implied  charges  like  these  applies  not 
to  unworthy  Churchmen  here  and  there,  but  to  the 
Church,  in  which  they  are  not  anomalies  but  "  fruits." 
This  suspicion  and  prejudice  I  have  shared.  It  was  to 
some  sort  of  tampering  with  moral  standards  that  I 
believed  TyrrelPs  remark  about  "  drains  out  of  order  " 
referred,  as  well  as  the  remark  ascribed  to  a  notable 
convert,  that  "  if  he  had  known  before  all  he  had  come 
to  know,  he  would  not  have  made  his  submission." 
What  truth  lies  behind  the  suggestion  in  "  doctrinal 
rigor  and  easy  morality  "?  To  ask  such  questions  im- 
plies no  rigorist  views,  or  failure  to  recognize  that  "  we 
have  our  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,"  but  springs  from 
conviction  that  the  Church  ought  to  be  subjected  to 
tests  of  severest  scrutiny,  since  like  Ca?sar's  wife  she 
must  be  "  above  suspicion,"  and  if  unjustly  maligned, 
must  be  defended  from  calumny. 

For  three  years,  I  have  tried  to  investigate  the  basis 
of  this  suspicion,  existing,  as  I  knew,  in  many  minds, 
and  never  wholly  absent  from  my  own.  The  War  re- 
vived it  in  raising  questions  about  the  policy  of  the 
Curia,  the  latest  form  of  an  old  difficulty.  It  is  usual 
to  trace  the  trouble  to  the  influence  of  Jesuit  casuistry, 
both  "  Jesuitical  "  and  "  casuistical  "  being  opprobri- 
ous epithets.  Many  who  are  disposed  to  revere  the 
"  White  Pope  "  dread  the  "  Black  Pope,"  not  thinking 


JESUIT  ETHICS  281 

the  former  Antichrist,  or  anything  worse  than  a  me- 
diaeval phenomenon  imperfectly  acquainted  with  his  own 
history,  but  regarding  as  distinctly  antichristian  some 
activities  supposed  to  be  undertaken  under  auspices  of 
the  latter. 

This  was  much  my  own  case,  and  in  wishing  to  know 
more  of  the  moral  influence  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  I  wished  particularly  to  learn  more  of  Jesuit 
casuistry.  My  first  notions  of  the  Jesuits  were  derived 
from  Pascal;  and  although  subsequent  reading  taught 
me  many  things  not  to  be  learned  from  his  essays,  I 
held  to  his  view  that  the  typical  Jesuit  stands  for  policy 
rather  than  for  principle;  and  that  in  the  past  the 
Order  has  in  unscrupulous  ways  sought  to  further  its 
own  interests  and  those  of  the  Church.  This  view  was 
strengthened  by  reading  Sir  James  Stephen's  essay  on 
the  Founders  of  Jesuitism,  Ranke's  Popes,  Cartwright's 
Jesuits,  and  even  Taunton's  Jesuits  in  England. 

It  was  not  that  I  was  without  knowledge  of  their 
lofty  ideals.  When  I  was  ordained  priest  in  1896  the 
Reverend  Charles  Wheeler  Coit  gave  me  his  father's 
copy  of  The  Spiritual  Exercises  of  St.  Ignatius,  which 
I  read  carefully  and  tried  to  use.  When  a  few  years 
ago  I  read  Franciosi's  Spirit  of  St.  Ignatius,  I  received 
no  impression  wholly  different  from  what  I  had  long 
since  derived  from  use  of  the  little  book  which  had 
belonged  to  Dr.  Coit. 

I  had  also  a  great  admiration  for  Jesuit  mission- 
aries, first  derived  from  Parkman  in  1895 ;  and  in  lec- 
turing on  the  History  of  Missions  had  one  special  lec- 
ture on  the  Jesuits  as  pre-eminently  the  missionary 


282  JESUIT  ETHICS 

heroes  of  the  seventeenth  century.  On  two  different 
occasions,  I  urged  the  placing  of  a  statue  to  Father 
Isaac  Jogues,  as  the  one  great  martyr  in  the  annals  of 
New  York  State,  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the 
Divine;  first  in  a  series  once  proposed  of  representa- 
tives of  American  Christianity,  and  second  in  a  series 
of  representatives  of  French  Christianity  in  the  St. 
Martin's  Chapel.  In  my  Seminary  lectures,  I  went  into 
detail  in  giving  the  lives  of  St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Fran- 
,cis  Xavier.  Nevertheless  I  always  prefaced  my  lec- 
tures by  saying,  "  The  Jesuits  can  only  be  described 
in  superlatives.  They  represent  all  that  is  most  de- 
voted, and  at  the  same  time  all  that  is  most  dangerous, 
in  Roman  Catholicism.  Like  Tennyson's  little  girl, 
'  when  they  are  good,  they  are  very,  very  good ;  and 
when  they  are  bad,  they  are  horrid.' " 

The  latter  statement  was  due  to  two  causes:  first, 
that  I  had  read  the  eighteenth  century  history  of  the 
Order  chiefly  in  the  accounts  of  opponents,  and  as 
between  Jesuits  and  Popes  opposed  to  them,  invariably 
sided  with  the  Popes ;  and  second  and  chiefly,  because  I 
altogether  distrusted  the  casuistry,  of  which  I  took  my 
notions  chiefly  from  Cartwright.  He  cited  Jesuit  au- 
thorities for  his  illustrations,  and  I  verified  enough  of 
his  quotations  to  feel  that  he  could  be  trusted.  His 
collection  consisted  entirely  of  the  most  doubtful  opin- 
ions. I  failed  altogether  to  appreciate  the  character  of 
the  books  on  Moral  Theology,  dealing  with  difficult  and 
exceptional  cases  of  conscience,  taking  advice  to  con- 
fessors tending  to  encourage  justice,  as  well  as  leniency, 
in  sympathetic  dealings  with  penitents  exposed  to  pe- 


JESUIT  ETHICS  283 

culiar  temptations,  as  advice  to  people  in  general  tend- 
ing to  provide  easy  excuses  for  neglect  of  displeasing 
duties.  I  confused  puzzling  exceptions  with  normal 
examples,  as  was  natural  enough  for  one  in  utter  igno- 
rance of  many  things  necessary  for  enabling  one  to 
estimate  such  things  justly.  I  should  now  have  a  much 
fairer  appreciation  of  the  kind  of  work  done  by  the 
early  Jesuit  doctors,  and  of  their  value  as  pioneers 
along  some  lines  of  moral  theology:  but  my  judgment 
of  some  of  the  special  opinions  cited  by  Cartwright  is 
now  precisely  what  it  was  when  I  first  saw  them.  They 
are  indefensible  and  tend  to  blunt  moral  perceptions. 
This  would  be  the  judgment  of  most  people,  especially 
by  modern  doctors  of  Moral  Theology,  among  whom 
Jesuits  are  chief.  In  Jesuit  books  have  I  found  the 
most  sweeping  condemnation  of  them  and  what  they 
represent.  It  is  to  such  opinions  as  these  that  I  take 
it  Father  Slater  S. J.  refers,  when  he  says : 

"  Casuistry  is  a  word  with  rather  bad  connotation  in  the 
English  language.  Its  secondary  meaning,  according  to  the 
Century  Dictionary,  is  '  over-subtle  and  dishonest  reason- 
ing.' I  am  not  concerned  to  deny  that  there  may  be  good 
historical  grounds  for  something  of  the  evil  reputation  which 
the  word  possesses.  It  is  apt  to  be  associated  in  men's 
minds  with  the  tortuous  reasonings  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  with  their  exaggerations  of  lighter  duties  and 
their  explaining  away  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law. 
Their  desire  to  make  the  yoke  of  the  moral  law  in  certain 
places  more  easy  for  men's  shoulders  may  also  have  its 
parallel  among  some  Catholic  theologians ;  not  every  Catho- 
lic theologian  catches  or  represents  the  mind  of  the  Church. 


284.  JESUIT  ETHICS 

"  Still,  casuistry  should  not  suffer  for  the  sins  and  errors 
of  some  of  those  who  have  cultivated  the  science  of  conduct. 
Not  all  who  profess  themselves  mathematicians  or  physicists 
write  wisely  about  those  branches  of  knowledge,  and  yet 
mathematics  and  physics  are  not  held  responsible  for  their 
vagaries.  Neither  should  the  great  and  useful  science  of 
casuistry  suffer  because  some  casuists  have  by  their  labors 
endangered  the  supremacy  of  the  great  moral  law. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  any  one  who  admits  that  there 
are  moral  laws  or  rules  of  conduct,  can  reasonably  refuse 
to  admit  a  science  of  casuistry.  Anarchy  and  confusion 
would  quickly  prevail  in  a  country  where  the  interpretation 
of  the  laws  was  left  to  the  judgment  or  caprice  of  private 
citizens."  * 

The  false  judgment  of  many  people  like  myself  con- 
cerning casuistry  in  general,  as  distinct  from  certain 
specific  opinions,  would  be  due  to  the  assumption  that 
the  ultimate  bar  before  which  all  moral  questions  must 
stand  is  that  of  individual  private  judgment.  I  am 
told  that  Father  Slater  is  the  most  generally  used 
authority  on  Moral  Theology  among  English-speaking 
Catholics  and  is  recognized  as  typical  representative 
of  Jesuit  teaching.  In  studying  some  five  volumes  of 
his  during  the  summer  of  1918  I  found  the  answer  to 
every  difficulty  which  ever  possessed  me  concerning 
Jesuit  ethics,  and  have  found  unqualified  condemna- 
tion of  everything  which  led  me,  on  the  assumption  that 
it  was  traceable  to  the  teaching  of  certain  early  Jesuit 
doctors,  to  think  that  in  certain  aspects  his  Order  was 
"  very,  very  horrid." 

*  Slater :  Questions  of  Moral  Theology,  p.  176. 


JESUIT  ETHICS  285 

For  example,  nothing  has  been  more  disturbing  than 
the  supposed  sanction  of  mental  reservations,  which 
made  it  impossible  to  know  when  truth  was  spoken.  In- 
stances are  cited  of  the  quoting  of  such  as  sanction  for 
perjury.  Nothing  of  this  sort  is  to  be  found  in  Father 
Slater,  who  takes  even  a  stricter  stand  than  certain 
English  writers,  sometimes  quoted  by  Anglicans,  who 
make  the  essence  of  a  lie  chiefly  to  consist  in  its  being 
spoken  "  to  one  who  has  a  right  to  know."  The  only 
mental  reservation  sanctioned  by  Father  Slater  are  the 
"  wide "  reservations,  in  regard  to  right  to  communi- 
cate knowledge,  which  must  be  made  in  the  keeping  of 
professional  secrets,  by  lawyers  and  doctors,  no  less 
than  by  the  priest  in  regard  to  what  has  come  to  him  in 
the  confessional.  Yet  even  these  "  must  not  be  em- 
ployed without  just  cause,  for  the  good  of  society  re- 
quires that  we  speak  our  mind  with  frankness  and  sin- 
cerity in  the  sense  in  which  we  are  understood  by  our 
hearers,  unless  there  be  a  good  reason  for  permitting 
their  self-deception  when  they  take  our  words  in  a  sense 
that  we  do  not  mean." 

"  Truth  requires  not  only  that  we  should  say  nothing 
that  we  know  to  be  false,  but  also  that  we  should  weigh  our 
statements  and  not  make  rash  and  unconsidered  assertions. 
There  are  some  people  whose  talk  runs  babbling  along  like 
a  stream  in  a  fresh,  and  with  as  little  meaning.  A  man  with 
a  love  for  truth  will  be  more  sparing  of  his  words,  and  will 
weigh  them  before  giving  them  currency." 

"  A  good  intention  certainly  cannot  make  a  bad  action 
good.  It  is  not  lawful  to  tell  a  lie  even  to  save  another's 


286  JESUIT  ETHICS 

life,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Innocent  III.  Evil  must 
not  be  done  that  good  may  come  of  it.  This  is  the  teaching 
of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  the  Catholic  Church,  nor  have 
Jesuits  any  other  doctrine  different  from  that  of  the  Church. 
Father  Dasbach  promised  to  give  any  one  two  thousand 
florins  who  would  prove  in  open  court  that  the  Jesuits  had 
ever  taught  that  the  end  justifies  the  means.  Count  Paul 
von  Hoensbroech  undertook  to  do  so,  but  he  failed  in  his 
suit  when  it  was  tried  at  Cologne,  in  the  spring  of  1905."  * 

The  result  of  study  of  this  sort  in  recent  years  has 
corrected  many  errors,  which  I  have  taught  as  well 
as  held;  has  banished  prejudices;  and  has  for  the  first 
time  given  me  some  conception  of  the  place  which  should 
be  given  Moral  Theology  in  training  of  the  clergy.  I 
know  that  the  Jesuits  were  not  responsible  for  the  prin- 
ciple, "  the  end  justifies  the  means,"  first  formulated  by 
the  Dominican  Medina,  a  "  maxim,"  according  to 
Bishop  Creighton,  "  emphatically  condemned  by  all  re- 
ligious bodies,  and  frequently  acted  on  by  all  alike." 
That  the  Jesuits  seem  to  have  acted  on  it  in  past  cen- 
turies seems  to  be  established  by  good  evidence.  If 
so,  it  merely  signifies  that,  like  all  other  organizations, 
the  Order  has  bad  some  black  chapters  in  its  history. 
To  admit  this  is  not  to  whitewash  Jesuits  by  a  species 
of  blackmail,  but  to  face  difficult  facts.  The  principle 
that  a  good  end  justifies  the  use  of  necessary  means  is 
one  on  which  we  all  at  times  feel  constrained  to  act ;  for 
example,  in  sanctioning  a  just  war.  There  would  be 
general  consent  that  war  is  an  evil;  and  yet  most  feel 
it  the  indispensable  means  for  securing  of  certain  ends. 

*  Slater:  Manual  of  Moral  Theology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  469,  49. 


JESUIT  ETHICS  287 

We  are  always  in  difficulty  when  we  have  to  face  it; 
yet  to  adopt  it  seems  often  a  plain  duty.  Of  flagrant 
misdeeds  committed  under  claim  of  its  sanction,  more 
must  be  attributed  to  the  influence  of  Luther  than  to 
that  of  Loyola.  Insistence  on  "  justification  by  faith 
only  "  was  used  as  cover  for  indifference  to  all  "  works 
of  the  law,"  issuing  in  most  shameless  immorality. 
The  Jesuits  were  never  responsible  for  anything  quite 
like  the  excesses  of  the  Anabaptists  in  Minister.  In  this 
regard  it  is  hard  to  see  who  would  be  especially  justified 
in  throwing  stones.  Anglicans  should  be  cautious. 
There  is  a  confusing  collection  of  "  probable  opinions  " 
in  their  Articles  and  Prayer  Books,  and  an  irresistible 
incentive  to  mental  reservations  in  the  attempt  to  rec- 
oncile Episcopacy  with  Royal  Supremacy,  and  "  Prot- 
estant Episcopal"  with  "Holy  Catholic."  Crede 
experto. 

Study  of  books  of  casuistry  has  not  only  disabused 
me  of  errors  concerning  the  influence  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  but  has  also  forced  attention  to  one  aspect  of 
the  Church's  life  which  has  caused  searchings  of  con- 
science as  well  as  revisions  of  judgment.  Jesuit  ethics 
which  once  acted  with  repellent  force  have  proven  mag- 
netic. The  reading  of  books  of  Moral  Theology  gives 
a  sense  of  the  moral  majesty  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
of  its  practical  insight  into  all  sorts  of  individual  needs, 
of  the  glory  and  strength  of  discipline,  of  the  failure 
to  measure  up  to  the  highest  standards  of  morality  and 
sanctity  in  those  religious  systems  which  have  neglected 
or  abandoned  it.  The  system  of  discipline  developed  as 
a  means  of  training  souls  through  the  Sacrament  of 


288  JESUIT  ETHICS 

Penance  is  the  approximate  embodiment  of  Divine  jus- 
tice and  mercy.  The  development  of  the  science  of 
conduct  shows  increasing  apprehension  of  the  moral 
content  of  revealed  truth,  and  increasing  skill  in  its 
application.  Outside  the  Catholic  Church  there  is  no 
parallel.  Within  it  alone  does  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins 
have  full  and  definite  meaning,  as  they  can  best  ap- 
preciate who  have  striven  to  recover  Penance  as  an  in- 
dispensable means  of  salvation,  acting  apart  from  the 
will  and  mind  of  the  authority  recognized  by  them. 
And  all  who  relate  the  spirit  of  discipline  to  the  beauty 
of  holiness  cannot  fail  to  recognize  that  the  genius  of 
Loyola  and  of  Loyalty  are  akin. 

A  similar  deep  impression  was  made  by  examination 
of  Jesuit  treatment  of  social,  political,  and  economic 
ethics.  Ever  since  in  Oxford  days  I  became  interested 
in  the  Christian  Social  Union,  and  regarded  with  admi- 
ration the  efforts  to  apply  Christian  principles  to  social 
problems  made  by  such  leaders  as  Bishop  Westcott, 
Bishop  Gore,  and  Canon  Scott  Holland,  I  had,  without 
special  knowledge  or  special  share  in  such  work,  been 
sympathetically  interested  in  all  Church  work  along 
lines  of  Social  Service.  Any  one  who  knows  what  has 
been  done  in  the  Church  of  England  and  in  the  Ameri- 
can Episcopal  Church  can  bear  witness  to  the  zeal  and 
energy  of  many  workers  and  to  success  along  various 
lines.  Yet  he  will  be  bound  to  admit  that  much  of  the 
work  is  crude,  and  more  of  it  at  random.  All  recog- 
nize Social  Service  as  a  duty,  and  wish  to  do  something; 
but  most  cannot  tell  just  what.  Committees  and  com- 
missions find  some  difficulty  in  making  convention  re- 


JESUIT  ETHICS  289 

ports  that  will  really  seem  to  indicate  progress:  there 
is  much  need  for  patience  in  tolerating  the  prominence 
of  a  few,  who  talk  rather  than  work,  care  much  for  fads 
and  more  for  self-advertisement.  On  the  whole,  the 
work  is  that  of  well-intentioned  amateurs. 

Catholic  work  along  these  lines  seems  to  introduce 
one  to  a  different  atmosphere  of  very  definite  work  under 
direction  of  experts  and  professionals.  There  seems  to 
be  superiority  in  two  ways:  first,  in  clearer  grasp  of 
the  Christian  principle  and  unswerving  adherence  to 
the  Christian  viewpoint,  in  which  they  would  have  no 
advantage  over  the  chief  Anglican  leaders  in  these 
matters,  though  much  over  the  rank  and  file ;  and  sec- 
ond, in  their  full  and  sympathetic  apprehension  of  the 
social  and  industrial  life  ,/hich  they  seek  to  affect. 
Their  thought  and  activity  is  that  of  masters  of  their 
subject,  if  mastery  may  be  affirmed  of  a  subject  in  re- 
gard to  which  so  many  judgments  must  be  tentative. 
Yet  it  is  clear  that  Catholics  are  qualified  to  lead  in 
the  work  of  social  reform ;  and  among  the  most  promi- 
nent of  their  chiefs  are  Jesuits.*  In  comparing  notes 
with  others  who  have  similar  interests  and  more  knowl- 
edge, I  have  found  corroboration  of  this  impression. 
I  quote  by  permission  from  a  letter  received  from  Pro- 
fessor Henry  Jones  Ford  of  Princeton  University: 


•  Any  who  wish  to  make  a  beginning  of  investigation  into 
this  aspect  of  Catholic  activities,  may  usefully  read  such  books 
as:  Plater:  The  Priest  and  Social  Action;  Day:  Catholic  De- 
mocracy, Individualism  and  Socialism;  Cathrein-Gettelmann : 
Socialism;  Slater:  Paper  on  Modern  Sociology  in  Questions 
of  Moral  Theology. 


290  JESUIT  ETHICS 

"  As  a  student  of  political  science,  I  have  had  from  time 
to  time  occasion  to  examine  the  works  the  Jesuits  are  pub- 
lishing in  regard  to  the  political  and  social  problems  of  the 
times.  I  have  always  been  impressed  by  their  high  quality. 
They  are  remarkable  for  firmness  in  grasp  of  subject, 
knowledge  of  details,  accuracy  of  statement,  precision  in 
use  of  terms,  calmness  in  discussion,  and  candor  in  argu- 
ment. I  venture  to  say  that  no  one  can  examine  the  treatises 
that  are  being  produced  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  John  A. 
Stratton,  Joseph  Keating,  and  Charles  Plater  in  England, 
Ernest  R.  Hull  in  India,  and  Joseph  Husslein  in  this 
country,  without  being  forced  to  recognize  their  great 
power  and  copious  information.  In  the  voluminous  litera- 
ture produced  by  the  Socialist  movement,  the  most  judicial 
and  comprehensive  treatise  is  that  of  Victor  Cathrein,  S.J., 
of  Valkenberg,  Holland.  It  has  been  translated  into  every 
European  language  and  has  run  through  numerous  editions 
in  Germany,  where  it  has  had  a  deep  effect  on  public 
opinion.  Several  editions  have  appeared  in  the  United 
States,  and  everywhere  the  work  has  established  itself  as  a 
standard  authority  on  the  history,  characteristics  and  aims 
of  Socialism."  * 

Every  investigation  of  recent  efforts  to  apply  Chris- 
tianity to  the  social  and  industrial  problems  of  the  day 

*  Professor  Ford  also  comments :  "  One  of  the  surprises 
that  have  come  to  me  as  a  Catholic  is  the  greater  sense  of 
intellectual  freedom.  The  Church  is  so  big,  so  strong,  so  sure 
of  itself,  that  it  can  allow  ample  room  for  the  play  of  indi- 
viduality." 

There  must  always  be  a  calmness  and  sense  of  freedom 
where  there  is  a  background  of  confidence,  Securus  judicat 
orbis  terrarum;  something  that  cannot  come  from  even  the 
most  complacent  private  judgment,  Securus  judico,  orbus 
terrorum. 


JESUIT  ETHICS  291 

must  result  in  deeper  appreciation  of  Leo  XIII's  great 
Encyclical  Rerum  novarum.  This  is  the  constitution 
and  charter  of  all  genuinely  Christian  Social  Service, 
and  is  classic  in  its  statement  of  necessary  points  of 
departure  and  of  inevitable  conclusions.  It  is  being 
used  as  basis  for  the  most  promising  activities.  From 
such  knowledge  as  I  have  been  able  to  obtain,  I  feel 
very  strongly  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — quite 
apart  from  any  question  of  its  claim  of  ecclesiastical 
supremacy — is  the  greatest  force  in  the  nation  to  main- 
tain authority  against  anarchy;  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage against  enemies  of  the  home ;  justice  and  order  in 
industrial  relations  against  the  disorders  due  to  class 
prejudice  and  inordinate  greed.  Its  effectiveness  as  a 
bulwark  of  order  and  true  freedom  in  this  age  of  un- 
rest and  uncertainty  is  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the 
alertness  and  adaptability  of  the  great  Order  of  the 
sons  of  St.  Ignatius ;  and  in  my  own  case,  it  is  perhaps 
an  example  of  coming  to  "  adore  what  one  has  burned," 
that  in  Jesuit  Ethics,  as  known  at  first-hand  rather 
than  by  hearsay,  I  have  recognized  one  of  the  chief 
forces  for  good  in  Roman  Catholicism. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CONVERSION 

THE  vanishing  of  illusions  and  removal  of  prejudices 
is  not  conversion.  Many  of  the  changes  of  opinion 
which  I  have  recorded  not  only  came  about  while  I 
had  no  intention  of  giving  up  my  post  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  but  were  quite  consistent  with  holding  it.  My 
opinions  in  regard  to  Roman  Catholicism  passed 
through  four  stages:  it  is  not  so  bad  after  all;  it  is 
really  quite  good ;  it  is  the  best  thing  I  know ;  it  is  the 
Church.  Only  when  the  last  was  reached  was  there 
genuine  conversion.  None  of  the  others,  not  even  the 
third,  compelled  change  of  allegiance.  It  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  any  non-Catholic  might  hold  them,  and 
even  take  up  cudgels  in  behalf  of  Roman  Catholicism, 
as  an  interested  outsider  intent  on  fair  play.  But  at 
the  last  stage  one's  duty  is  obvious.  If  the  Roman 
Communion  is  to  be  identified  with  the  Catholic  Church, 
one  who  believes  in  the  Catholic  Church  must  seek  ad- 
mission with  no  regard  to  terms.  To  believe  in  the 
Church  is  to  trust  it  to  know  what  is  right.  Uncon- 
ditional surrender  alone  is  possible.  My  attitude  for  a 
long  time  was  that  of  an  approving  critic :  I  knew  that, 
if  conversion  came,  it  must  become  that  of  a  penitent 
sinner. 

The  change  came  eventually  with  recognition  of  the 
principle  of  primacy  as  integral  and  essential  to  the 


CONVERSION  293 

Church,  that  is,  of  the  papal  claim.  I  have  not  yet 
acted  on  the  conviction  for  three  reasons.  At  the  time 
it  came,  I  was  still  Bishop  of  Delaware.  I  wished  to 
make  a  formal  statement  of  reasons.  I  have  wished 
to  test  the  conviction  by  a  little  waiting.  I  have  had  no 
doubt  as  to  the  outcome.  For  some  time  it  has  seemed 
to  me  that  the  only  possible  alternatives  are  Roman 
Catholicism  or  Agnosticism.  To  my  surprise  I  have 
been  feeling  the  force  of  agnostic  arguments.  Never 
for  a  moment  have  I  believed  it  possible  that  I  should 
end  in  Agnosticism;  but  I  have  been  seeing  plainly  the 
plausibility  of  much  that  can  be  said  in  its  behalf. 
Divided  Christendom  repels  and  paralyzes.  So  I  have 
wished  to  wait  a  little,  on  my  own  account,  as  well  as, 
for  various  reasons,  on  account  of  others.  The  convic- 
tion has  become  stronger  and  clearer  day  by  day.  All 
sorts  of  things,  before  confused,  have  dropped  into  ob- 
viously right  places.  There  has  come  a  new  semblance 
of  order  in  the  world  as  one  looks  out  upon  it.  The 
efforts  of  private  judgment  to  appraise,  understand, 
and  pronounce  upon  everything  have  come  to  seem  ridi- 
culous. Many  old  opinions  appear  useless  and  foolish, 
though  often  having  new  value  as  gaining  a  place  in 
relation  to  things  as  a  whole.  So  far  as  I  am  personally 
concerned,  the  only  feeling  is  one  of  content.  I  have 
not  been  seeking  personal  happiness,  or  peace,  or  use- 
fulness. I  have  wished  to  be  identified  with  the  Catholic 
Church  to  which  my  life  has  been  pledged.  In  having 
found  what  I  believe  to  be  the  true  Ark  of  Salvation, 
every  personal  wish  is  satisfied  by  reception  into  it. 
Presumably  my  active  life  ends ;  but  that  makes  no  dif- 


294  CONVERSION 

ference.  It  is  certainly  a  great  relief  to  exchange  the 
task  of  trying  to  reform  the  Church — the  necessary  ef- 
fort for  all  who  hold  my  former  point  of  view — for  the 
simpler  one  of  letting  the  Church  try  to  reform  me! 
That  seems  a  more  reasonable  way  to  view  things. 

One  satisfaction  in  making  this  decision,  if  that  word 
can  be  applied  to  recognition  of  an  obvious  duty  and 
necessity,  is  that  it  is  the  choice  of  the  leaden  casket. 
"  Who  chooseth  me,  must  give  and  hazard  all  he  hath." 
There  can  be  no  other  condition  for  gaining  anything 
really  worth  while.  "  What  many  men  desire "  and 
"  As  much  as  he  deserves  "  obviously  correspond  to  in- 
ferior motives  and  inferior  attainments.  In  Delaware 
I  had  what  many  men  desire  and  much  more  than  I  de- 
served. To  begin  with,  it  was  so  identified  with  all  I 
was  bound  to  value  most  highly,  that  from  every  point 
of  view  I  could  give  and  hazard  everything  for  what  it 
stood  for.  It  was  impossible  to  wish  for  anything  else. 
But  with  a  changed  point  of  view,  so  that  for  me  it  no 
longer  stood  for  the  things  of  supreme  value,  I  could 
not  keep  it.  That  would  have  been  an  injury  to  all 
concerned.  What  now  possesses  chief  value  for  me  is 
elsewhere.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  "  treasure  hid 
in  a  field  "  and  a  "  pearl  of  great  price."  Possession, 
not  cost,  is  the  thing  to  consider.  And  this  even  when 
part  of  the  price  must  be  paid  by  other  people.  The 
end  can  only  bring  good  and  happiness  to  all  con- 
cerned. The  only  thing  worth  while  is  doing  duty  as 
we  see  it;  the  only  things  worth  having  are  those  for 
which  we  most  care.  I  for  one  have  had  things  I  set 
great  store  by ;  and  I  have  them  now. 


CONVERSION  295 

Newman  once  said :  "  Rome  did  not  make  us  Catho- 
lics: Oxford  made  us  Catholics."  I  should  venture  to 
put  myself  in  this  category,  if  I  did  not  feel  it  necessary 
to  look  behind  Oxford  to  St.  Paul's  School.  St.  Paul's 
School  made  me  a  Catholic,  in  giving  rudiments  of 
belief,  and  in  stimulating  religious  instincts,  which,  if 
they  were  allowed  to  live  and  grow,  could  only  be  satis- 
fied with  what  was  believed  to  be  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  St.  Paul's  teaching  only  pointed  directly  to  the 
life  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  of  which  it  gave  an  attrac- 
tive example :  but  it  seems  to  me  now  to  have  been  point- 
ing through  that  toward  something  else.  I  cannot  set 
up  to  be  a  good  specimen  of  what  St.  Paul's  ought  to 
produce;  yet  it  would  seem  to  me  that  the  course  my 
experience  has  made  necessary,  is,  for  me  at  least,  the 
only  way  of  living  up  to  my  St.  Paul's  birthright. 

So  far  am  I  from  repudiating  the  religious  experi- 
ences which  I  have  shared  in  the  past,  that  it  is  enthusi- 
astic veneration  for  them,  and  belief  in  their  reality, 
that  impels  toward  what  I  believe  guarantees  them. 
Grace  may  be  given  without  being  guaranteed.  I  have 
a  sort  of  "  receptionist  theory  "  of  Orders  and  Sacra- 
ments, in  view  of  anomalous  conditions  in  the  Christian 
world.  The  Church,  as  Divinely-appointed  means  of 
salvation,  alone  guarantees  gifts  of  Divine  grace.  Yet 
there  are  so  many  who,  from  no  fault  of  their  own,  do 
not,  and  cannot,  know  where  and  what  the  Church  is. 
In  perfectly  good  faith  they  come  before  God,  believing 
themselves  to  be  in  His  Church,  and  wishing  to  receive 
all  that  through  the  Church  He  gives.  Belief  in  Divine 
love  and  mercy  compels  us  to  assume  that  God  will  not 


296  CONVERSION 

fail  them.  "  Him  that  cometh  to  Me,  I  will  in  no  wise 
cast  out."  "  According  to  thy  faith,  be  it  unto  thee." 
Our  Lord  certainly  gives  full  measure  of  His  grace  to 
all  who  can  receive  it ;  and,  no  matter  what  the  defects 
of  ecclesiastical  systems,  He  will  not  fail  to  respond 
to  perfectly  good  faith. 

This  is  not  a  notion  I  have  recently  taken  up  in 
order  to  escape  personal  difficulties.  Believing  in  Epis- 
copacy as  Divine-ordered,  I  used  to  think  of  the  Church 
as  existing  in  its  three  branches,  which  held  to  the  His- 
toric Episcopate.  Through  the  Church  so  conceived,  I 
believed  that  there  was  normal  ministration  of  grace. 
Yet  I  did  not  think  that  this  was  never  given  through 
non-episcopal  religious  bodies.  For  example,  in  the 
case  of  my  own  Presbyterian  and  Congregationalist 
connections.  In  the  ecclesiastical  systems  with  which 
they  were  identified  I  did  not  believe;  yet  when  they 
presented  themselves  humbly  before  God  wishing  His 
grace,  I  never  doubted  that  they  received  all  that  was 
possible,  and,  in  many  ways,  what  is  normally  given 
through  the  Church.  With  a  changed  conception  of 
what  constitutes  the  Catholic  Priesthood  and  Episco- 
pate, I  am  only  now  applying  to  myself  the  sort  of  prin- 
ciple which  before  I  wished  to  apply  to  the  cases  of  my 
great-grandparents.  I  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  reality 
of  what  I  myself  have  received  and  done,  when  acting 
in  good  faith  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  not  because  I 
still  believe  in  the  regularity  and  validity  of  its  ecclesi- 
astical system;  but  because  I  am  confident  Our  Lord 
never  fails  those  who  trust  Him.  Sacramentis  Deus  non 
obligatur,  sed  nos. 


CONVERSION  297 

Yet  neither  in  the  past,  nor  in  the  present,  has  this 
belief  in  "  uncovenanted  mercies  "  seemed  any  reason 
for  indifference  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Church,  or  for 
assuming  that  because  people  were  good,  there  was  no 
need  of  trying  to  make  them  better.  It  is  all-important 
to  be  within  the  One  Church,  in  which  alone  is  fulness 
of  faith,  normally  evoking  and  using  fulness  of  grace. 
"  Receptionist  theories "  of  Sacraments  are  among 
those  permitted  to  Anglicans.  I  avail  myself  of  ancient 
privilege  in  a  last  exercise  of  private  judgment  before 
its  voluntary  abdication. 

Old  St.  Paul's  boys  will  have  recognized  in  the  title 
of  my  book  the  opening  words  of  the  School  Ode, 

Salve  Mater,  almior 

Alma  luce  auroras, 
Cordi  nostro  carior 

Creturo  fulgore. 

Socii,  nunc  libera 

Foce  laus  tollatur. 
Factis  et  ad  cethera 

Volet  alma  Mater* 

They  will  now  see  why  I  have  used  it.  It  is  because 
the  fundamental  reason  of  my  seeking  admission  into 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  the  wish  to  be  loyal  to 
what  as  a  boy  I  learned  at  St.  Paul's.  In  my  case,  it 
is  only  thus  that  there  can  be 

Pietas  per  omnia 
In  fidelitate. 

•  Sung  to  the  tune  of  Maryland,  My  Maryland. 


298  CONVERSION 

It  has  been  the  simple  lessons  learned  at  St.  Paul's  that 
made  me  first  love  the  innermost  life  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  now  has  made  me  feel  that  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  more  to  love  still,  full  instead  of  par- 
tial realization,  substance  in  place  of  shadow. 

It  is  this  that  has  helped  through  special  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  believing.  In  St.  Paul's  I  was  taught  to 
believe  in  the  Incarnation,  with  consequent  love  and 
veneration  for  Our  Lord's  Mother  and  His  Saints,  al- 
though I  was  long  and  slow  in  applying  the  lesson. 
Hence  it  has  been  easy  to  see  how  one  may,  and  must, 
say: 

Salve  Mater  mis ericor dice, 

Mater  Dei,  et  Mater  Venice, 

Mater  spei,  et  Mater  gratice, 
Mater  plena  sanctce  Icetitice,  0  Maria. 

It  is  this  which  has  led  to  fuller  realization  of  what  is 
meant  by 

Salve  Mater  Ecclesia 
Domus  fidelium, 
Lassi  refugium, 
Mortui  anastasia. 

It  was  in  the  Cathedral  in  Philadelphia  in  1916  that 
I  first  had  a  vivid  sense  of  the  Church  as  a  great 
Mother,  very  wistful  and  very  tender.  It  seemed  to 
explain  something  I  read  not  long  after  in  Newman's 
Loss  and  Gain. 

"  He  felt  himself  possessed,  he  knew  not  how,  by  a 
high  super-human  power,  which  seemed  able  to  push  through 


CONVERSION  299 

mountains,  and  to  walk  on  the  sea.  With  winter  all  around 
him,  he  felt  within  like  the  spring-tide,  when  all  is  new 
and  bright.  He  perceived  that  he  had  found,  what  indeed 
he  had  never  sought,  because  he  had  never  known  what  it 
was,  but  what  he  had  ever  wanted — a  soul  sympathetic 
with  his  own.  Was  this,  he  asked  himself,  the  communion 
of  Saints  ?  .  .  .  '  O  Mighty  Mother ! '  burst  from  his  lips ; 
he  quickened  his  pace  almost  to  a  trot,  scaling  the  steep 
ascents  and  diving  into  the  hollows.  '  O  Mighty  Mother ! ' 
he  still  said,  half  unconsciously ;  '  O  mighty  Mother !  I 
come,  O  mighty  Mother !  I  come ;  but  I  am  far  from  home. 
Spare  me  a  little;  I  come  with  what  speed  I  may,  but  I 
am  slow  of  foot,  and  not  as  others,  O  mighty  Mother ! '  " 

Hugh  Benson  enlarges  on  the  same  idea. 

"  To  the  world  she  is  a  Queen,  rigid,  arrogant,  and  im- 
perious, robed  in  stiff  gold  and  jewels,  looking  superbly  out 
upon  crime  and  revolt ;  but  to  her  own  children  she  is  Mother 
even  more  than  Queen.  She  fingers  the  hurts  of  her  tiniest 
sons,  listens  to  their  infinitesimal  sorrows,  teaches  them 
patiently  their  lessons,  desires  passionately  that  they  should 
grow  up  as  princes  should.  And,  supremely  above  all,  she 
knows  how  to  speak  to  them  of  their  Father  and  Lord, 
how  to  interpret  His  will  to  them,  how  to  tell  them  the 
story  of  His  exploits;  she  breathes  into  them  something  of 
her  own  love  and  reverence;  she  encourages  them  to  be 
open  and  unafraid  with  both  her  and  Him;  she  takes  them 
apart  by  a  secret  way  to  introduce  them  to  His  presence." 

"  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  Catholic  alive  who 
would  dare  to  say  that  he  has  no  difficulties  even  now;  but 
'  ten  thousand  difficulties  do  not  make  one  doubt.'  There 
remain  always  the  old  eternal  problems  of  sin  and  free  will ; 
but  to  one  who  has  once  looked  into  the  eyes  of  this  great 


300  CONVERSION 

Mother,  these  problems  are  as  nothing.  She  knows,  if 
we  do  not;  she  knows,  even  if  she  does  not  say  that  she 
knows;  for  within  her  somewhere,  far  down  in  her  great 
heart,  there  lies  hid  the  very  wisdom  of  God  Himself."  * 

But  how  relate  consciousness  of  the  great  Mother, 
late  recognized,  to  recollection  of  the  one,  believed  to 
be  Mother,  by  whom  one  was  reared  and  cared  for?  It 
is  the  same  Mother  all  the  time,  only  for  a  while  wear- 
ing a  disguise.  It  is  not  repudiation  of  the  Mother  to 
prefer  her  with  the  disguise  left  off. 

It  is  what  I  was  early  taught,  and  have  always  be- 
lieved, about  the  Church  and  her  chief  characteristics 
and  functions,  that  has  impelled  the  giving  of  alle- 
giance where  these  are  most  apparent.  Reverence  for 
the  Scriptures,  which  our  Puritan  forefathers  had ;  un- 
swerving loyalty  to  the  ancient  Creeds ;  fullest  realiza- 
tion of  the  Divine  Sacraments ;  fullest  utilization  of  the 
Historic  Priesthood:  all  these  things  are  what  we  have 
always  been  taught  to  care  for.  For  their  sakes  must 
we  seek  the  Church  in  which  they,  and  many  things  be- 
side, alone  have  rightful  place.  This  is  the  true  home 
of  all  Our  Lord's  loyal  servants ;  yet,  if  they  be  sepa- 
rated in  the  dimness  of  earth's  tangles,  we  know  that 
they  will  ultimately  be  brought  together  in  His  Pres- 
ence and  His  perfect  service. 

For  the  first  time  I  seem  to  be  discovering  the  mean- 
ing of  things  I  have  long  thought  and  talked  about. 
Words  which  meant  much  in  times  past  have  come  to 
mean  more  in  the  present  than  it  was  possible  to  con- 

*  Benson ;  Confessions  of  a  Convert,  pp.  159,  HO, 


CONVERSION  801 

ceive  when  they  were  first  used.  For  the  first  time  I 
seem  to  attach  definite  meaning  to  what  I  said  in  a 
lecture  delivered  over  six  years  ago. 

"  American  life,  national  and  religious,  must  show  social 
coherence  and  subordination  as  a  means  of  unification.  .  .  . 
More  and  more  we  need  the  safeguard  of  the  corporate 
principle  in  life  to  correct  one-sided  tendencies;  more  and 
more  we  need  the  philosophy  of  society  and  the  gospel  of 
the  Church  for  the  security  of  highest  individual  develop- 
ment. ...  In  national  problems  we  need  greater  com- 
prehensiveness of  view  with  subordination  of  detail,  the  sort 
of  thing  which,  in  the  religious  sphere,  is  given  by  concep- 
tion of  the  Catholic  Church.  We  need  the  sense  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  for  the  preservation  of  the  Republic.  All 
that  America  stands  for  can  only  be  guaranteed  by  that 
corporate  sense  which  thinks  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  and 
rises  from  consciousness  of  the  nation  to  consciousness  of 
the  brotherhood  of  the  race;  and  this  conception  comes  to 
us  chiefly  from  the  Church  of  Christ.  The  central  thought 
of  the  Church's  faith  is  that  of  the  presence  and  spiritual 
activity  of  Our  Lord,  Who  is  not 'a  mere  figure,  dear  but 
dim,  in  ancient  history,  but  the  one  great  present  Reality. 
If  we  wish  to  be  abreast  of  the  times,  we  shall  be  filled  with 
this  faith  and  hope.  The  cry  of  the  hour,  as  of  the  ages,  is 
for  fuller  realization  of  the  Living  Christ,  fuller  apprecia- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  Living  Church.  This  thought  of 
eternal  life,  of  present  vigor  and  action,  makes  an  especial 
appeal  to  the  American  zest  for  realizing  present  opportuni- 
ties. This  is  the  very  heart  of  the  Catholic  Faith,  which 
combines  permanent  and  variable,  oldest  truth  with  newest 
needs. 

"  There  are  three  watchwords  to  which  every  American 
heart  responds,  Freedom,  Sympathy,  Variety.  These  things 


302  CONVERSION 

we  seek  in  our  social  and  national  life;  these  things  we 
wish  in  the  Church.  We  also  speak  mucb  of  Unity;  but 
perhaps  we  fail  often  to  think  long  enough,  and  feel  deeply 
enough,  to  know  what  Unity  means.  We  ought  also  to  take 
account  of  the  significance  of  the  New  Testament  word 
Fulness.  .  .  .  Puzzling  perhaps,  but  serving  to  express 
the  idea  of  a  comprehensive  faith  for  a  composite  people. 
This  is  precisely  what  is  meant  by  the  Catholic  Faith  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  the  faith  in  all  the  harmony  of  its 
completeness  for  all  the  nations  of  the  world."  * 
BERCHMERE,  November  14,  1919. 

•  Catholic  and  Protestant,  pp.  89  ff. 


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